Chapter 103: Venom Bat
Batman had unleashed Peter's body at maximum sprinting speed—over two hundred twenty kilometers per hour.
Because Batman raised his elbow, force concentration focused almost entirely on the elbow tip. His generated destructive power far exceeded equivalent-speed advancing vehicles.
But that solid impact inflicted no damage whatsoever on this grotesque creature. Batman's anticipated sensation of shattered bones didn't transmit. Instead, it felt like striking extremely resilient thick rubber.
"ROAR!"
Venom bent one leg forward while the other's muscles tensed, opening its gaping maw to roar furiously at Batman.
Batman remained expressionless.
The Oracle AI automatically lowered white lenses, faintly glowing white replacing Batman's pitch-black eyes.
"What kind of creature are you?" Batman's voice remained low.
"GRAAAH—I am Venom. You are a snack." Venom grinned, displaying its fang-filled maw while issuing low growls.
"Don't interfere. I'm looking for Martin Li."
Batman's entire musculature tensed. Though not adopting combat stance, he'd completely prepared for battle:
"Regardless who you're seeking, you shouldn't—"
ROAR!
Before Batman finished speaking, Venom suddenly roared and charged forward.
Venom's attacks were simple, brutal, and direct. One fist instantly hardened like an iron hammer, smashing straight down toward Batman's head.
Batman remained utterly calm, sidestepping to dodge Venom's attack. His eyes never left Venom, staring fixedly at it.
"Body parts can transform. Previous impact proved Venom possesses excellent resilience, possibly including non-Newtonian fluid characteristics. Can attempt slow but forceful methods for subduing it, but I need preliminary verification."
"Execute Plan A first."
Batman never acted rashly. His combat style never involved recklessness but consisted of countless large and small plans.
Within moments, Batman had consecutively dodged Venom's dozen-plus attacks.
During this period, Venom transformed both hands into hammers, blades, or simply extended arms, growing tentacles from back and chest... attack methods emerged endlessly.
Currently he continuously evaded Venom's assaults while shooting pitch-black webbing in all directions. Batman consistently maintained the combat area within this small garden.
Increasingly abundant webbing gradually formed an airtight giant net. Under Batman's manipulation, it bound Venom within, slowly constricting as Batman applied force.
"Slow but forceful" didn't mean close-quarters combat, waiting for opportunities to twist Venom's limbs off—rather utilizing webbing to achieve this goal.
Close-quarters melee was absolute last resort. Batman made this judgment the instant he'd slammed Venom from the welfare center.
But Venom within the webbing merely flicked its tongue. Then those tightly wound webs gradually merged into its body. Venom simply walked directly out from the web prison.
"Conventional cutting and binding ineffective. Plan A failed. Continue executing Plan B."
Just as Venom escaped webbing restraints before launching new attacks, Batman raised his hand—three batarangs embedded almost simultaneously in Venom's eyes, mouth, and chest.
"Ptui."
Venom's mouth turned outward, spitting out the batarang shot into its mouth while simultaneously raising both hands to extract batarangs embedded in eyes and chest.
"Overturning previous deductions—batarangs could embed in chest, proving Venom only possesses excellent body resilience, not non-Newtonian fluid."
"Eyes aren't weak points. Seems incapable of feeling pain."
"Analyzing mouth structure—Venom has partial biological characteristics, but external skin including eyes aren't weak points. Skin surface has metallic-quality luster yet full resilience."
"Brief contact suggests Venom has no weak points. Next attempt Plans C and D."
Batman's previous opponent similar to Venom was Gotham's "Clayface"—likewise capable of body transformation, likewise seemingly without weaknesses.
But through subsequent encounters with Clayface, Batman discovered the opponent wasn't truly without weaknesses.
Quite contrary—low temperatures and dryness sufficed rendering Clayface's abilities useless. His ultimate fate was defeat by Batman's anti-Clayface armor.
Plan C: Based on Venom's eyes not being weak points, possibly observing environment not through vision but some sensory ability—activate Bat-signal summoning bats, attempting creating sensory chaos through massive interference.
Plan D: Alter webbing formula ratios, increasing adhesiveness, attempting whether capable of pulling off Venom's slime-like substance, simultaneously assisted by solidification gel.
Clatter!
A batarang seemed to slip accidentally from Batman's hand, falling to the ground.
Batman shifted steps, one hand reaching behind to his utility belt, extracting one of his pre-prepared web formulas, lightning-fast swapping out the web fluid inside his gauntlets.
Time pressed urgently. Batman hadn't added components capable of making webbing black. Pure white webbing shot out under wrist muscle control, slapping onto Venom's body with a splat.
Simultaneously, Batman's seemingly casual foot movement stepped on the batarang fallen to ground. The Bat-signal beneath his boot sole immediately activated.
Fwip, fwip, fwip...
Massive quantities of webbing shot from Batman's wrists, concentrating on adhering to one of Venom's legs.
Concurrently, successive solidification gel capsules were extracted from his belt, thrown beside Venom's other foot.
They shattered instantly—liquid gel inside rapidly expanded upon contacting air, solidifying, fixing Venom's other leg in place.
SNAP!
Sounds like rubber bands snapping rang out. Over thirty tons of force transmitted through white webbing. Viscous pitch-black substance on Venom's leg was pulled off in sheets.
But within mere instants, the torn section seemed like independent entities splitting into two parts—one portion still adhered by webbing, the other leaping back toward Venom's leg.
Just as that small portion leaped up, Batman's Plan E activated. Round black devices carved with bat symbols—converted South Wind bombs, now flashbangs—fell to the ground.
Next second, intense white glare, high-frequency noise, plus violent shockwaves bloomed throughout this small garden.
"SCREEEECH!"
The Arkham suit immediately protected Batman from flashbang interference, but Venom currently issued agonized screams.
Within white light, Venom's body rapidly swelled like rapidly growing fungal filaments, presenting irregular sponge-like hollow structures, exposing Eddie Brock inside its body. This man also screamed in agony.
Batman, relying on the Arkham suit's lens effects plus sonar, saw the human inside Venom. Without hesitation, he shot webbing, grabbing him through gaps in Venom's swollen form.
Under Batman's forceful pulling, Eddie Brock was violently extracted from Venom's interior.
"No! Let me back!" Eddie Brock screamed, struggling to lunge toward Venom remaining in place.
Simultaneously, the hostless Venom also lunged toward Eddie's direction—then passed Eddie, disappearing onto Batman's body.