Boom!
Like a thunder spear hurled down by a god's hammer!
A blinding beam of light blasted Dongwu out of the sky.
At hypersonic speed, the air around his body ignited from friction.
Falling from tens of thousands of meters up, even Dongwu's current body could not possibly endure it.
He fought like crazy to spread his wings, but the raging wind tearing past almost ripped them clean off.
The flames also roasted them into black charcoal.
Still, spreading his wings did slow his descent, and he used them to adjust his angle, aiming straight for where the three rivers met.
The lake there was extremely deep, which could help absorb part of the impact.
And once he was in the river, he might find a chance to escape again.
But how could Bant possibly let him have his way?
Bant pressed his feet together, braced his arms back, and flames erupted from both his soles and his forearms.
As the fire blasted backward, a massive force shoved him forward.
That thrust was terrifying, the energy from the flames was enough to send a rocket into space.
Boom!
At that moment, Bant chased after Dongwu like a blazing fire meteor.
He moved later but arrived first, catching up to Dongwu in the blink of an eye.
He lifted an arm, and another laser shot out.
Slash!
The laser instantly punched through the fleshy membranes of Dongwu's bat wings.
Now only bare bone frames remained, and they could no longer support Dongwu's glide.
He could regenerate them, sure, but regeneration took time.
And right now, time was the one thing he did not have.
From a height of ten thousand meters, a person only needed 190 seconds to hit the ground.
That was under free fall conditions.
And do not forget, Dongwu had been blasted down by Bant.
Now he had no time to regrow wings.
Ahead was a pitch black stretch of water.
Splash!!!
Dongwu slammed straight into the lake.
The surface tension made it feel no different from smashing into concrete.
A towering column of water surged into the sky in an instant.
Then it crashed back down like a torrential downpour.
The broad lake heaved up massive waves, nearly flipping nearby cargo ships and tour boats.
The impact shattered nearly every bone in his body in an instant, and his organs burst apart.
But he still did not die.
His physique was several times stronger than Connors', and the Lizard Serum's healing effect was even more pronounced in him because of that.
Dongwu regained consciousness quickly.
Even though he felt like his body was about to split apart, he still forced himself to move.
The only path left to him now was escape.
But he could not escape.
Splash!
Bant did not hesitate at all.
He dived in, plunging straight into the river.
Sizzle.
His body's extreme heat made the surrounding water boil instantly, bubbling violently.
Any unlucky fish that happened to be near him was cooked on the spot.
Fish: yeah, we're well done.
Contrary to what many people thought, the Flame Man was not actually afraid of water.
Water would not take his life, and he could even breathe and speak underwater.
Of course, water did have a high specific heat capacity.
In the water, his heat was being absorbed constantly, which did limit his abilities.
Fortunately.
"Life Lock Mode,解除."
Bant stared coldly at Dongwu, who was trying to flee, and pressed the core of the Little Broken Watch on his chest.
With Peter's help, Bant had secured part of the Little Broken Watch's central control authority.
In reality, he had only done three things.
First, fairness.
No.
First was Life Lock Mode.
Second was transformation switching.
With this, he could use the Little Broken Watch far more flexibly in combat.
Underwater combat naturally called for.
"Ripjaws!"
In an instant, the flames on Bant's body receded, and the lava like physique vanished.
In its place was cold, gray green skin.
His head now resembled a fish from Earth, complete with a glowing lure on top.
Webbing stretched between the claws of his hands.
His lower body became a mermaid like tail.
He looked like a mermaid, except like a sewer version that had drunk too much nuclear wastewater.
Ripjaws was a Piscciss Volann.
Piscciss was a water planet, and water battles were their specialty.
Ripjaws' raw physical stats were not especially terrifying, but they had something to be proud of.
Their bite force was monstrous, and their teeth were insanely tough.
Ordinary steel, in front of their teeth, was softer than tofu.
Even Tony's titanium alloy armor would not be worth mentioning.
Watching Dongwu drift farther away, Bant whipped his tail and surged forward.
In the water, he was faster than a torpedo.
Dongwu had already swum into deep water, and darkness wrapped around his vision.
He finally let out a breath.
The darker it was, the more it meant that Flame Man would not show up again.
And the temperature down here had dropped too.
He had become closer to a cold blooded creature and preferred warmer environments.
But the Flame Man's temperature was just too damn high.
Now the icy lake water made him feel safe instead.
"Once I'm in the lake, he can't catch up," Dongwu thought.
"That bastard. Next time, I'll kill him for sure!"
"You won't have a next time, Dongwu!"
A voice rang out.
Dongwu jolted and hurriedly looked back.
In the pitch black water, a white streak of spray cut through at extreme speed, shooting toward him like an arrow.
Bant seized Dongwu in a flash.
His huge mouth opened, the split stretching all the way to the back of his skull, as if it could swallow Dongwu's head whole.
Crunch!
Fangs pierced Dongwu's skin and ripped off a chunk of flesh.
"Aaah!"
Dongwu roared in agony as lake water flooded his nostrils.
Truth be told, unless Bant bit all the meat off his entire body, this kind of injury was nothing more than a scratch to Dongwu.
But Bant's goal was not to kill him immediately.
He pulled out a vial of serum and stabbed it hard into Dongwu's wound.
The antidote to the Lizard Serum spread throughout his body, crushing Dongwu's last hope of recovering enough to counterattack.
Without the Lizard Serum's effect, his healing ability plummeted.
Bant grabbed the horn on top of Dongwu's head and dragged him all the way to a sewer outlet, then plunged inside.
Once on land, Bant canceled the transformation.
On land, Ripjaws only had enough strength to lift objects roughly equal to his own body weight.
Dongwu weighed several tons now, so Bant had to revert if he wanted to haul him away.
At that moment, the third function revealed after the Little Broken Watch was cracked finally appeared.
It entered Calibration Mode, and its appearance changed.
Now the Little Broken Watch looked like an ordinary wristwatch, and from the outside, the hourglass symbol was no longer obvious.
Bant actually preferred the watch's original look, but the symbol was too conspicuous.
After this incident, the alien heroes would definitely be investigated by S.H.I.E.L.D., and Bant did not want extra trouble.
Still, it was a pity.
Even though Calibration Mode changed the watch's appearance, he had not obtained any new heroes for the time being.
"You think you've won?"
Dongwu had lost, yet he still refused to accept it.
Or rather, he truly had a backup plan.
"Hehehe. Take a guess where my Gene Variator went?"
Bant glanced at him.
From the start of the fight until now, Dongwu really had not been wearing the Variator.
"I've already merged the Variator with the Canary Device."
"It won't be long before it activates and fires the mutation ray across all of New York!"
"When that happens, everyone will become mutants!"
"I haven't lost!" he said excitedly.
He even craved the moment he would see defeat on Bant's face.
But Bant was calmer than he expected.
"Is that so?"
"Then take a guess where Dr. Connors went."
Bant shot back.
Dongwu froze.
Not long ago, in the sewers.
Before the operation, Bant had already assigned tasks between Peter and Connors.
Peter had wanted to move with Bant, but Bant had ordered him back to Queens to protect Uncle Ben and Aunt May, in case anything happened.
Connors, meanwhile, claimed he could operate the Variator a little, so Bant sent him out to stop Dongwu's device.
This time, Dongwu finally lost all spirit.
Not long after, Dinosaur Connors returned, carrying a massive piece of equipment on his shoulder.
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