Time passed bit by bit, and one hour later.
There wasn't a trace of fatigue on the Incredible Hulk's face; on the contrary, Venom Robin was getting slower and slower, and his strength—which he hadn't fully unleashed to begin with—was dwindling.
"Batman, hurry up and give me a piece of chocolate!" Venom Robin shouted at Batman.
Batman turned a deaf ear, standing in place watching Venom Robin, whose punches couldn't even shake Hulk's frame in the slightest. He knew that in a little while, Robin would be nearing his limit.
Doctor Otto had clearly noticed Venom Robin's condition as well; the four mechanical tentacles behind him began to dance, ready to respond to any changes that might occur when Venom Robin hit his breaking point.
Bang!
Venom Robin's fist struck Hulk's thigh once again, yet still failed to move him an inch.
Venom Robin grew increasingly weak. He took a few steps back, his hands hanging at his sides, his head lowered, motionless.
"Hulk not tired yet." Hulk beckoned to Venom Robin from a distance.
Venom Robin didn't pay attention to Hulk this time. His pitch-black symbiote arms rippled, and faintly, the arms appeared somewhat stronger than before.
"Stealing my chocolate, calling me a fly..."
Venom Robin murmured under his breath. His current state was like a man in a desperate situation whose body begins to produce adrenaline; a steady stream of power began to surge from his core into his limbs.
He charged at Hulk once again, and once again was slapped away by Hulk.
"Still not enough."
Venom Robin gritted his teeth, and the symbiote matter expanded once more.
This time, his fist finally knocked Hulk back half a step.
"Still not enough!"
Venom Robin let out a roar. Bolstered by the power surging from within, he charged at Hulk again and again, just like the battle scene at the very beginning.
But now, every time Venom Robin was knocked away, his body would expand a little, the pitch-black symbiote matter wriggling bit by bit to encase the shroud suit within it.
Another ten minutes passed, and Venom Robin had completely changed his appearance.
His physique was now as tall as the Hulk, and the pitch-black symbiote matter, glistening with a metallic sheen, formed clusters of tightly twisted muscles on the surface of his body.
A massive, bloody maw opened, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth, with a long scarlet tongue that could almost hang down to his chest.
After prolonged combat, without the replenishment of phenethylamine from chocolate or the illumination of moonlight, Venom Robin's image was now dominated by Venom, without a single trace of Moon Knight left.
"Kraa-la!"
A piercing, strange shriek erupted from Venom's mouth as he leaped high into the air.
With a loud boom, he smashed a hole through the laboratory roof. Venom's body rushed into mid-air, then came crashing down rapidly in free fall, smashing through the laboratory once again.
Thud!
With a muffled sound, Venom collided solidly with Hulk in one go. A shockwave, almost visible to the naked eye, rippled out from where their fists met.
Crash! Clatter!
The fragile glass containers in the laboratory were blown to the ground by the wind pressure. Experimental drugs of various colors spilled onto the floor, only to be spread into a thin layer by the ensuing shockwave.
Professor Morbius spread the membrane wings under his arms, once again taking to the air with the help of the wind.
Up on the moonlight platform, Doctor Otto used his four mechanical tentacles to firmly grip the ground, the skin on his face rippling in waves from the blowing wind.
Only Batman stood motionless in his original spot, his Arkham Suit rapidly recording various data on Venom at this moment.
Crunch! Crack!
As the epicenter of the storm, the floor beneath Hulk and Venom's feet was crushed simultaneously.
The fists of the two monsters did not separate after the single blow; instead, they simultaneously clenched their other fists and smashed them ruthlessly toward each other, colliding once more.
This time it was no longer a muffled sound, but akin to a thunderclap from a clear sky. The sound of the head-on collision caused the lights in the laboratory to flicker, and a large pile of originally firmly secured experimental equipment fell to the ground.
This time it was no longer just a windstorm either. Centered on the two monsters' second fist-clash, a visible circular vacuum appeared briefly, then vanished just as quickly.
This was because their strength was so great that it forcibly squeezed the air out, blasting that small area into a momentary vacuum environment.
The appearance of the vacuum lasted less than a hundredth of a second, but it was still clearly recorded by Batman.
The air that had been rapidly squeezed out rushed back in a short time to fill the vacuum, generating a sudden suction force out of nowhere that pulled Professor Morbius, who was suspended in the air by the wind, toward the direction of the two monsters.
At the same time, Doctor Otto's body was also lifted; although his mechanical tentacles gripped the ground firmly, his body still staggered a few times toward the monsters.
Batman remained standing still, motionless, only reaching out to grab Professor Morbius when the latter was uncontrollably sucked past him.
"Is this what Robin originally looked like?" Professor Morbius hurriedly retracted his membrane wings, casting a grateful look at Batman and asking with some lingering fear.
"Yes," Batman said concisely.
"So strong? How did you defeat him back then?" Professor Morbius frowned repeatedly.
He originally thought he counted as a complete monster, but looking at it now, every single person on the entire South Brother Island was more like a monster than he was—especially Batman.
Batman recalled the scene when he encountered Venom. He had spent a dozen seconds understanding the characteristics of Venom's symbiote matter, then spent another dozen seconds trying different tactics.
Finally, with the help of flashbangs and a specially formulated spider-silk web, he spent another dozen seconds resolving Venom.
"Some planning," Batman replied.
But at this moment, Professor Morbius's attention was no longer on Batman; he was staring wide-eyed at Venom and the Hulk.
Venom's muscles were certainly massive, but the muscles under Hulk's taut skin, which looked like they were about to snap, possessed even more explosive power.
As the two locked fists in a test of strength, the playful look on Hulk's face vanished. Instead, he gritted his teeth and stared dead at Venom opposite him, pressing his fist toward Venom's chest inch by inch.
Just as it looked like he was about to fall into a disadvantage, the muscles on Venom's body began to solidify once again. His back slowly bulged, his broad spine and thick arms exerting force simultaneously, clawing back the situation bit by bit.
Having confirmed that Batman was his mission target, Hawkeye did not set off immediately.
He remained sitting cross-legged on the bed in the dilapidated apartment, fashioning the materials he had bought and collected during the day into arrow shafts, inserting them one by one into his quiver.
Only when the quiver was full did Hawkeye stand up, walk to the window, and look at the moon in the sky, which was unreasonably bright.
"I am still unsure whether Batman is a mission target given to me by S.H.I.E.L.D., or by Hydra."
"In other words, in the eyes of others right now, am I a Hydra spy, or a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent?"
Hawkeye asked himself in a low voice, then opened the window and leaped out.
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