[@Savato]
The bolts of plasma were fired at the creature's arm, and yet their speed and accuracy wasn't even close to the degree necessary to stop Apocalypse's attack. The plasma bolt itself couldn't move even close to the speed of sound, and thus was never suited to intercept the attacks of a being so superior in speed. Like trying to shoot a bullet out of the air. Perhaps the ethereal had underestimated it's opponent, or perhaps it simply hadn't had a chance to think in the 50 milliseconds it took for Doomsday to close the distance between them and launch his attack. Whatever the cause, the mistake was not one that could be undone.

As the punch landed, a wave of force emanated from the point of impact, a crater forming underneath the Ethereal's body. Had it not been for the Ethereal's psychic shielding, it would have been dead from that single blow. As it was, however, it found it manifesting it's full power just to prevent itself from being pasted, the psychic shell around it cracking under the pressure. Had Apocalypse launched another punch, the ethereal might have been destroyed right there. It would have taken approximately 5 milliseconds for the punch to land, a timespan in which it was impossible to react. Even if the Ethereal had launched it's psychic lance immediately the travel time would have been too long, dooming it. However, it was not to be.

Doomsday took a moment to glower, glaring at his opponent with a satisfactory grin as he saw the Ethereal struggle to hold the force of his punch. Just a moment of self-satisfaction before launching the next blow, a volley of plasma bolts closing in from all sides at a rate of about 70 km/hour. To him, they were like turtles, and they would never arrive in time. This was a split second decision, the ethereal would need to force Apocalypse to back off in the span of about half a second, 500 milliseconds of time. Were he to fail to do this, the next blow might break through his psionic defences, and shatter his relatively frail body.

((To support my statements. Speed of sound is approx 340 m/s. Estimating the distance between the Ethereal and Apocalypse to be about 15 meters, that's about 5/100ths of a second to close the distance, or 50 milliseconds. More accurately, it would take about 45 milliseconds to close the distance. However, I threw in the extra 5 milliseconds for the forward motion of the arm - the punch. Don't underestimate moving at the speed of sound, it's OP as shit.))