Meanwhile, back in the forest, the fight between Clark and Mars was starting to heat up. Mars soon threw a left hook, only for Clark to duck to avoid it. This only frustrated the War God further, and when he saw Clark pop up, he used that same arm to drive his elbow into the right side of his neck.
Luckily, through the corner of his right eye, Clark spotted his attack and used his right hand to grab Mars' elbow. Afterwards, he tried to fight back by throwing a left middle punch, only to have it stopped when Mars used his right hand to catch the fist before it could reach his gut.
As for Mars, he only grunted angrily as he used his strength to keep Clark's fist away from her person. "This is getting annoying," he thought, then pushed both of Clark's arms upward, only to give him the opportunity to deliver a right legged front kick, nailing Clark in the 'S' emblem on his chest and sending him staggering backward.
Fortunately for Clark, he managed to save himself from falling by levitating a few feet up into the air. Normally, he would instinctively use his heat vision to try and keep Mars or whatever foe he's fighting at a distance, but sadly, he knew he could use such a tactic without the risk of starting a forest fire. As such, he settled for raising his right fist up, flew downward and pounced his fist into the ground, causing a small earthquake.
While this succeeded in causing Mars to stumble and fall to the ground, the War God decided to use this to his advantage by secretly grabbing some dirt into his right hand. As he sat up into a kneeling position, he saw Clark flying down towards him like a speeding bullet, and thus rolled to the right side and avoided getting hit both Clark's incoming left hook. After stopping, the War God pushed himself back up, with dirt still tightly clinched in his closed hand, and as he turned around, he saw Clark making a U-turn and charging towards him once again. It was here that Mars waited for Clark to come in close, and once the time was right, he threw dirt into Clark's eyes and dashed to the left side, causing the now blinded Man of Steel to land and roll violently into the ground.
Once Clark stopped rolling, he slowly started to sit up, blinking rapidly in a desperate attempt to get the dirt out of his eyes. Unfortunately, he is caught by surprise when he felt what must have been a freight training ramming itself into the right side and sending him flying into the air.
It turned out to be none other than Mars, who at this point kicked the defenseless Clark like he was a football. Once he saw the Kryptonian airborne, Mars flew right after him, and once he was close enough, started jabbing the index and middle fingers in both of his hands into Clark's chest with incredible speed. The War God then capped things off by delivering a right legged front kick into Clark's abdomen, sending him crashing through four trees landing violently in the ground.
Despite taking such punishment, a woozy but determined Clark still managed to will himself back up to his feet. But as he did so, he received quite the shock when he could not more, or feel, both of his now dangling arms. "My…my arms!" he exclaimed, then looked forward to see Mars slowly walk towards him. "Did you…?!"
"Strike pressure points? Yes," Mars replied. "After all, someone of my position must know ALL styles of hand-to-hand combat. I'll admit, it took some guess work when it came to your body, but apparently, I was successful in hitting a few points that will prevent you from using those massive arms of yours."
Back in Rome, the League saw this and were naturally disturbed. But none more than Lois, who looked on in pure fright. "Oh no…"
In the forest, Mars stopped for a moment to pop the knuckles in his right hand. "All in which will make it easier for me to get this little skirmish of ours over with!" With that declaration, Mars jumped up into the air and came down at Clark with his right fist cocked back.
Despite being literally and figuratively 'disarmed', Clark still managed to lunge and roll to the left side, successfully avoiding Mars' attack and forcing the War God to pound his right fist into the Earth instead, causing the ground to momentarily shake. Once he ended up in a kneeling position, Clark turned and saw Mars pulling his fist from out of the ground, then turned to face him with furious red eyes charged towards him once again. From here, Clark proved to the War God that he was far from being defenseless as he inhaled air through his nose and blew out, he pursed his lips to cause a decrease in temperature, causing ice to build up around Mars' body and freeze him in a block of ice just as he threw a right hook. Now with a clear advantage, Clark used his right leg to throw a front kick, which shattered the ice and sent the War God flying backward and landing hard on his back. Moments later, the Man of Steel leaped into the air and went to stomp both of his feet into Mars' chest.
Sadly, even on the ground, Mars saw this coming and quickly used both of his hands to catch Clark's feet. Even if things hadn't gone as well as he planned, Mars still couldn't help but chuckle, silently impressed with Clark's courage and determination. "I must admit, you've surprised me," said the War God. "You're much stronger and braver than all of the heroes I seen over the centuries. But now, I think it's time to end this game." With a firm grip on Clark's feet, Mars used his strength to slam the Man of Steel to left side, causing the ground itself to crack. As he got up, Mars, still holding on to the dazed Clark's feet, proceeded to spin Clark around in a circle at high speeds, until he finally threw him high into the air.
For Clark, having no feeling or control of his arms was bad enough, but with the fact that he was being thrown up into the air so hard, he was now entering space, he felt that things were becoming more and more challenging. Luckily though, he looked up and saw something that made his eyes light up with hope. It was that of Earth's yellow sun, the source of his power burning brightly. Knowing that its exposure would not only increase his powers, but also undo the pressure point attacks to restore mobility in his arms, Clark soon zoomed higher towards the burning star.
Unfortunately, Clark would be robbed of that chance when Mars showed up right in front of him and gave him a stiff right handed backfist to the face, sending Clark back down to Earth. All in which prompted a smiling Mars to do what he usually did when getting the upper hand on his opponents: gloat. "As you mortals would say…psyche!" With that said, Mars, held up both of his hands, and once again created a red sphere again, only this time, he put some much energy into it, that he made it the same size as the Earth itself! With a loud battle cry, the War God pushed the giant sphere down towards the Earth itself!
END OF PART 4