Chapter Three: Black Adam vs Poseidon.
The Champion of the Egyptian Pantheon was level with Poseidon, Greek God of the Sea and Earthquakes. He knew what was to come. Why Poseidon was here. This was a deity who controlled aspects of the planet in such a way he could cause a catastrophe if he so desired. He could drown nations, cause earthquakes so powerful infrastructure stood no chance. Now he was here, sprouting from the Red Sea and ready to unleash his godly fury on Kahndaq. Any lesser man would tremble in the Greek's presence, but Black Adam was no lesser man. The empowerment of Mehen granted him divine courage and an indomitable will. He inherently persevered even in odds that seemed overwhelming or against opponents most would deem unbeatable.
"Teth Adam!" Poseidon shouted, the waves responding to the authority of the god's voice and rising up behind him like a wall of saltwater, "you dare stand against the might of Olympus?"
"Being a god does not entitle you to do whatever you wish without challenge!" Black Adam spoke above the sound of rushing water and heavy winds, his voice carrying over the battlefield, "you orchestrated the attack against Kahndaq. You are responsible for the deaths of my people," he levitated forwards, closer to Poseidon's face, "god or mortal, those who seek to harm Kahndaq are my enemy. I will destroy you like so many before."
This declaration angered Poseidon to no end. He viewed Black Adam as nothing more than an arrogant human who needed to be put in his place. And being spoken down to as if he were inferior by such a man… Poseidon would not stand for it. The ever growing wall of water behind the god began to take shape into pillars of liquid. The first one came and Black Adam struck it with his fist, the shockwave from such a blow causing the water to blast back, cut perfectly in two by a crescent of air pressure. The second pillar hit him from the side, diverting the king straight towards the sea. Teth knew that if Poseidon got him under the waves he would be done for. While he couldn't be drowned he would likely stay trapped while the Greek razed Kahndaq. Letting out a fierce battle cry, Black Adam cleaved both of his hands into the highly pressurised water construct and ripped it fiercely in half, before turning swiftly mid-air. His palm pushed down and his descent halted, a few droplets grazing his hand while ripples spread out along the Red Sea's surface. He was surprised at how close he came to being submerged. Compared to Mera, who's water constructs were easy to destroy, Poseidon's were larger, faster and more difficult to counter. As he expected from the Greek god.
There was only one legitimate path for Adam to take and that was using more of the Strength of Amon, one of his six empowerments. Dark blue lightning surrounded him like an aura of static light, a sign he was unleashing more of his innate powers. The next water pillar that came Black Adam swung his leg around and crashed his heel down atop it, diverting its path back into the Red Sea. Amidst the thundering reverberation of a sonic boom, Black Adam seemed to vanish from his original position, appearing once more directly in front of Poseidon's face. To the untrained eye the burst of super speed would look like teleportation. Then, Teth Adam did something that nobody had done to Poseidon before. He dragged his fist across the Greek god's face. Poseidon recoiled under the strength of Amon-Ra that was flowing through Black Adam's body. Ichor, the golden fluid that was the blood of Greek gods, spat from the cut formed in Poseidon's cheek by the attack.
"You dare strike a god?" Poseidon roared, righting his colossal frame and throwing one of his huge fists down at Black Adam. He tried to block the blow, but Poseidon's fist in this enlarged form was practically as big as Teth's entire body. He felt the sand part around him and the earth crater downward while Poseidon pummelled him into the desert shore of Kahndaq. Once the fist was removed another came, beating down on Black Adam furiously. By the time Poseidon subsided with his downward punches, Black Adam took a moment to rise onto one knee from being lay flat. The Stamina of Shu, another of his six empowerments, granted him extreme superhuman endurance and contributed, alongside Mehen's gift, to his incredible durability. Despite Poseidon's anger fuelled blows, he did not break the Egyptian Champion. But he did slow him down and make him take several moments to recompose himself.
By the time Black Adam looked back up, Poseidon had lifted his trident into the air and was amassing a tidal wave as tall as the tip of his weapon, raising it up in preparation to bring it down on Kahndaq and end the battle. A great shadow befell the land as the wave continued to gain in size. Black Adam would not have it. He would not stand for it. He had safeguarded his people for thousands of years. As Poseidon brought the wave down, Black Adam fired from the ground, deepening the crater he was once lay in.
His hands extended and he channelled the power of Zehuti at first. The Egyptian God of Knowledge gave Black Adam access to limitless wisdom but most importantly, magical spells and power. Aton's empowerment granted Black Adam increased power in every sense of the word. By bringing these two to the surface he could cast a complex or large spell with ease and make it significantly more powerful than normal. Golden ankhs as large as the wave that was crashing down itself began to materialise along the shore of Kahndaq. Between them was the translucent shimmering of a mystical barrier. The ankh was the symbol commonly used for life and here Black Adam used it to reinforce his barrier, to defend the life of his kingdom and his people. The water crashed down against the wall of sorcery. The king felt the feedback through his body, the strength of the waves, the intensity of the water. Yet his concentration and power remained firm. He could not let this barrier break. Poseidon grew more aggressive at being halted, throwing a fist against the mystical force field followed by striking it with his trident. Black Adam knew what must be done. He drew his hands back and then thrust them forwards. The barrier exploded to counteract the formation of the tidal wave and disperse it, that much magical energy condensed and so tightly together was more than enough to dissipate the tidal wave. The subsequent explosion not only ripped the wave apart, but sent Black Adam crashing into the sand a second time, distorting his divine senses and leaving him temporarily unable to move in the sand.
It took a moment for the king to regain his focus. His senses of sight and sound gradually came back from being temporarily disorientated due to the feedback of his barrier detonating. When he eventually came around, he realised Poseidon had wasted no time in continuing his assault on Kahndaq. A rivers width of seawater flew forward like a whip, grasping at Kahndaqi soldiers and dragging them beneath the waves. A second similar attack was thwarted by Black Adam appearing in front of his soldiers and protectively forming a barrier around them for the water to repel away from them. But those he failed to save were engraved into his mind.
Poseidon was interrupted from launching a third assault by Black Adam's fist suddenly cracking against the underside of his chin. To the king, Poseidon appeared frozen in place within his perception. Utilising his superhuman speed to completely overwhelm the Greek god. Each forceful blow against the Greek's chest caused the skin to split and ichor to flow down his torso. Poseidon was driven back somewhat, until the deity lashed out with his trident. Black Adam was knocked back through the air but righted himself just in time to see a wave come crashing down toward him. He stretched his arms to either side of him and slammed his palms together in a manner akin to a clap. This was his infamous thunderclap. A booming force clashed with the wave, spreading from his fingertips and causing it to shred entirely and lose form, raining over the sand as individual drops. However the splitting of the wave revealed Poseidon's already incoming fist and he caught Black Adam with a direct hit, driving him back towards the ground again.
To Poseidon's dismay, Black Adam pressed his palms against his knuckles and weaved his way around the god's fist. He had learned from the initial punching flurry Poseidon administered to him at the beginning of his fight. A swift roundhouse kick to the forearm sent Poseidon's arm flailing to the side, disrupting his guard entirely. Despite the split skin and bleeding wounds Black Adam had inflicted on him, Poseidon seemed unlikely to fall anytime soon. So he changed tact. Rather than go for Poseidon directly… Black Adam went for the one thing that was likely to hurt him. His trident.
The Champion of Kahndaq manifested mystical lightning into a brutal spear of erratic static. Within the next conceivable moment, he was ripping the intense energy through Poseidon's other wrist. Ichor sprayed all over the king, but he cared little. Poseidon howled out in pain at the sudden rampage against his limb and sure enough… his grip ceased to retain its strength. His fingers straightened, losing their grip strength on the trident, and as it did, Black Adam turned and threw the spear into the god's face, erupting it into light to stun Poseidon for a short fraction of time.
By the time Poseidon's vision cleared from the mystical flashbang, Black Adam had caught the massive trident and hurled it directly at him. The Red Sea calmed and the Greek god tilted his chin down to see his own enchanted weapon, the Trident of Poseidon, pierced through his chest and stomach. The triple prongs cutting through his divine flesh with relative ease. His chin tilted up and he coughed out a mass of golden ichor. The piercing blue light of his eyes faded, revealing the more deep-sea blue underneath the glow. This near fatal injury caused the god to lose control of his magic, his form and trident shrinking from their titanic size to the size of a regular man.
A man who Black Adam caught mid-fall.
Without a care for his well-being, Adam tossed Poseidon down at the feet of the bound Aquaman and Mera. The Greek god, one of the big three, rolled over with the trident still pierced through his front. The points sank into his flesh like the teeth of a beast.
"This is your god?" Black Adam questioned aggressively. The knowledge and vision of his people dying had brought him to the edge of going into a rage induced frenzy. It took every ounce of his willpower to not execute Aquaman, Mera and Poseidon right there and then.
Neither Aquaman or Mera responded, so Black Adam grasped Poseidon by his beard and crushed his face against the nearby architecture. Grinding his skin against the wall while he made a single, simple demand.
"Tell them the truth."
Poseidon spluttered more ichor, "you… stole from us..." Poseidon stated, which garnered a swift stomp to the kneecap from Black Adam, snapping the bone. Poseidon cried out in sheer agony.
"No. I did not. Tell them the truth." Black Adam repeated.
Impossibly, Poseidon managed to smile under the circumstance, "Zeus will turn your kingdom to ash."
That was the tipping point.
Black Adam snapped, grabbing the pole of the trident with a roar of fury and digging it further into Poseidon's body.
"Adam, stop! Please!" Aquaman tried but Black Adam couldn't hear him. Mera looked away. There was a continuous cracking of Poseidon's ribs and a final cry out of intense pain and then… Silence. The Greek god was reduced to just a corpse lying in a pool of ichor. His eyes completely whitened over and his skin turned a grey colour. The Greek God of the Sea was dead. Only two of the 'Big Three' remained.
"You killed him..." Aquaman began in disbelief, "you killed a god!"
"If I have the power of the gods… Am I not a god myself?" Black Adam asked Arthur, "when two gods clash, only one will survive. Those who attack Kahndaq will die."
"Then why are we still alive?" Mera asked, glancing up at the ichor stained and battle worn King of Kahndaq.
"You are alive because for the moment, you are more valuable to me as prisoners than as corpses. Make no mistake, I will execute you and return your headless body to Atlantis myself should that situation change," the king growled at Mera, who looked down at the sand. It was not often Black Adam was pushed to a near bloodlust level of anger. Neither Aquaman or Mera knew how to deal with him in this state, that much was clear.
"Tomaz!" Black Adam called for his lead commander, "take the King and Queen of Atlantis to Shiruta. Lock them in separate cells until I give the order to have them released. Do not take off their restraints."
"At once, my king," Tomaz took a short bow, hauling the two royals to their feet and leading them back northward.
Black Adam levitated into the air, looking down at the surviving members of this contingent of his army.
"The battle against Atlantis and Poseidon is won. We march north to return to the capital. We have time before the Amazons attack to plan our next move!" he addressed his soldiers. There was a chorus of cheering and sounds of excitement at their victory. Despite the losses, the Kahndaqi forces had high morale and were in high spirits. Once they had departed, Black Adam flew back down to lift Poseidon's corpse from the floor. Despite being dead, there was no telling what powers could be drawn from the body, if any at all. He was one of the most powerful Greek gods, after all. Black Adam himself had no interest in such things, but he wasn't about to give Atlantis or anybody else for that matter access to a potential source of power. So, he took the corpse with him. He'd seal it away in Shiruta, never to decompose yet also never to be manipulated.
The first battles were won, but that in no way meant Black Adam had won the war. Hippolyta and the Amazons would come and that meant Wonder Woman would not be far behind either. Whatever the case, the king knew he would be ready for that threat.
**DISCLAIMER** I do not own Black Adam, Kahndaq or any of the other DC characters that may or may not show up through the chapters of this fanfiction. This is simply my take on how powerful a character like Black Adam could be and what the Kingdom of Kahndaq could look like under his rule.