Chapter 89: Ge Tan at Night

These words are full of provocation.

"That's enough to deal with you." Damian drew his weapon from his waist and rushed forward first. Nightwing tried to pull the back of his collar, but missed. He rubbed his temple with one hand and groaned, then followed behind to cover the boy.

There were several crisp metal collision sounds between the buildings. Damian cut through the enemy's armor smoothly, pointed the blade at the enemy's neck, and sneered, "Nothing more than that."

The next second, the killer, whose fatal part was pointed at, didn't care about his own life at all. He let the flesh and blood collide with the shiny blade, and stabbed Damian's eye socket with the dagger in his hand.

"Watch out!" Nightwing pulled out his stick to block the dagger. Damian took the opportunity to retract the knife and stabbed the enemy fiercely in the waist and abdomen.

Owl Mask said, "Naive."

He raised his hand, and several subordinates behind him immediately responded to his command, brandishing double daggers and fighting with the three young men.

Under the mask that didn't look like a living person, Claw's gaze gradually shifted to Nightwing.

"I know you."

He pondered, "The superhero of Bludhaven has been coming back to Gotham so often in the past year. Is it because he finally remembered where his hometown is?"

"Grayson?"

Nightwing was distracted for a moment, and a long narrow wound appeared on his forearm.

Tim made a prompt decision and said, "They are not afraid of getting hurt! Let's retreat first!"

**

The body that was sent to the police station had the mark of the Athenian owl on its wisdom tooth. This owl first appeared on coins in ancient Greece, symbolizing wealth and power.

There is an urban legend about Gotham, which was written into a poem. The first line says: "Beware of the Owl Court, which is always watching you wherever you go." The whole text has the flavor of a goose mother's nursery rhyme. In simple terms, it warns people to be careful of owls and the attacks of their sharp claws.

To what extent is this legend widespread in this city?

Yesterday, Commissioner Gordon thought of the Owl Court when he saw the mark on the tooth. Even Dick mentioned after a brief recollection that he had heard similar rumors before leaving Gotham as a child.

But in fact, the above is all nonsense. Organized villains all over the world like to stamp their crime scenes and then design a high-end and grand declaration of membership. For example, the purpose of the Assassin's League is "Justice must be achieved by one's own hands", and the owl was regarded as the guardian bird of Athena and a symbol of wisdom in ancient Greece.

But no normal person would have any good feelings towards an illegal group that would not even spare wisdom teeth.

Moses was not surprised that he was attacked. He had originally wanted to lure them out openly. The people inside the Wayne Group had already been secretly evacuated just in case he did not carry any weapons in public.

But it seemed that the Owl Court did not take him seriously. There was only one killer here, and he was not in a hurry to attack him when he stood in front of him. Instead, he looked at him with admiration and asked, "Where is Batman?"

Standing in front of you.

Moses took two steps back and leaned against the French window. For others, high altitude was definitely not a suitable environment for fighting. But he was familiar with Gotham and the building under his feet. The wider space outside could also avoid causing additional casualties.

"Are you here to see him?" he asked.

The killer didn't answer, but suddenly approached. Within ten seconds, they were fighting. This guy was extremely strong, had no nerve reflexes, and felt no pain when he was injured. He was like a machine. Several times, Moses hit him in the vitals and almost thought he had finished him off. But the owl mask was still unharmed, and appeared behind him like a shadow, ruthlessly stabbing his shoulder blade with the sharp blade in his hand, and the blood immediately stained his expensive shirt red.

This blow was shocking enough that an ordinary person would have collapsed from the pain long ago.

"Where's Batman?"

The killer seemed to think the threat was over and asked again.

Moses:"……"

Is your thinking a bit slanted?

A man who is said to have a close relationship with Batman is standing in front of you, and his skills are unexpectedly good. Don't you have any doubts?

The other party was so stubborn in believing that Batman and Bruce Wayne were two different people that he was a little interested in finding out where their confidence came from. You know, Talia from the Assassin's League only came to Gotham twice, and she was able to infer and intuit Batman's true identity based on known clues. Now that the Owl Court has come knocking, how could their sensitivity to information lag so far?

He glanced at the wound on his body, and determined that pulling out the weapon would cause blood loss, so he pressed the glass window behind him with his bloody palm and slid down pretending to be exhausted. The moment he landed, his fingertips scratched the ground and stuffed a chip into the secret compartment.

This is the micro information collector he left on his opponent during the previous fight. No matter where they go in the future, the collector will remotely copy what Batman wants to know into the chip.

After doing this, he said with a forced calmness, just like Dumbledore surrounded by Death Eaters on the top of the tower: "I don't know where he is now. But I am sure that if you kill me, you will never see him again."

The killer said nothing, walked up to him, half-knelt down, and looked at him through huge round-frame goggles.

"You're pretty good."

He praised.

Suddenly he raised another dagger and stabbed it into Moses' other shoulder.

The black-haired young man gritted his teeth and groaned in pain, clenching his fists to suppress the subconscious impulse to counterattack.

"It's a pity the last name is Wayne."

The Claw of the Owl Court said regretfully, looking into the blue eyes that were wet with sweat on the forehead.

“I don’t know about the councils in other cities, but we don’t welcome any outsiders.”

He held the man's forehead and slammed him hard against the window glass behind him.

“Blah——”

The world fell into darkness.

**

Barbara suddenly covered the microphone and uttered a series of curses under her breath.

Nightwing was startled. He had just called the Prophet's name, and after a while he asked, "Sorry, what's wrong? Should I call you that?"

"No, that's not the reason." Barbara said, "I chose this code name myself. I didn't use it because I didn't like Batman's attitude that I would be lying on the ground and dying in the next second... I want to say another thing. Bruce was taken away just now."

"What?"

"I think he left the Owl Court on his own initiative. Although it doesn't look like that, we all know him. You ran out of the camera's tracking range fifteen seconds ago. Have you shaken off the pursuers?"

"Not just now," Tim said. "They were following us closely. Damian nearly severed a man's spine but he survived. After you said Bruce was kidnapped, they took the initiative to distance themselves."

"How did these creatures called claws find us? Even Batman doesn't know, unless they have spies all over the city."

Robin: "Sherlock Holmes' famous quote: When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. I'm afraid we are facing such an opponent."

Damian asked: "You guys aren't going to save him? Although... he's Bruce Wayne now, right?"

"Let's go to the Wayne Building first. He must have left something behind before he left."

Batman left behind a chip, and nothing else.

No message, no explanation, no follow-up plan.

The chip contained basic information and communication records of the claw that took him away from the building. The remote locator was blocked, but the results of the air and soil composition analysis around the target location could be uploaded at any time, which meant that they still had the possibility of tracking the opponent.

However, no matter how good-tempered a person is, he or she will inevitably get furious when faced with such a situation.

Dick paced back and forth in the Batcave angrily. "I don't understand why he couldn't inform us before making a decision? If Damian and the two of us hadn't decided to secretly follow him out today, he might have been missing for ten days or half a month without anyone knowing what happened!"

Alfred handed over the cup at the right time: "Drink some water to moisten your throat before continuing, Master Grayson."

"It's not the first day you've known him." Tim said with his head down, "I'm wondering now, if they are really the legendary Owl Court, then has the fact that Bruce is Batman been exposed?"

"From the recording, there is absolutely no such thing."

"But they know your last name is Grayson." Robin looked puzzled. Without warning, he stood up and walked to Dick's side. "I thought of something. Do you mind having a tooth pulled?"

“…”

Five minutes later.

"This tooth has been with me for nearly eighteen years." Dick said vaguely, holding his cheek, "I didn't expect to say goodbye to it today."

"Sure enough." Tim squatted on the ground, holding a bloody tooth in his hand. The inside of the tooth was engraved with an owl mark just like the previous deceased. "It seems that your family has been connected with the Owl Court. They have been paying attention to your situation, so they can call out your last name today. In addition, the court cannot be unaware that Richard Grayson was adopted by Bruce, and Nightwing often patrols with Batman at night. Even so, they still insist on their own opinion."

He pondered for several minutes.

Finally, he concluded: "'Don't welcome outsiders', it seems that the dark forces in Gotan are much more prejudiced against each other than I thought."

"Forgive me," Alfred said slowly, "this reminds me of those old families who are proud of their centuries-old heritage. They also think they are superior. Before the old man was kidnapped, he was trying to convince these expensive and fragile antiques to accept his plan to renovate Gothan, but from what I understand, their attitude needs to be improved."

Nightwing: "That's why the court doesn't take Wayne Group seriously. Batman must be from Gotham, but Wayne is not. Bruce is dispensable in the eyes of those criminals - should we find him as soon as possible? What if the other party kills him?"

"I don't think so," Robin said. "Initially, Claw intended to kill him, but after a brief exchange, he changed his mind. Bruce also noticed this, so he allowed himself to be knocked unconscious and taken away. But you are right, he doesn't even have his belt, so he is still in great danger. We must find the court base as soon as possible to provide support."

"Can we contact the Justice League?"

This rare proposal immediately brought silence to the Batcave.

Dick shrugged. "If it was Batman, he would certainly not accept help. But now the person being kidnapped is Bruce. If he doesn't want to be exposed, then who else besides us knows Batman's true identity and can get here in time?"