Nighttime, a desert town.
Under the glow of fire, the ruined buildings, shattered by explosions, littered the streets, with half-buried corpses lying under rubble.
“Bang! Bang!”
“Boom!”
Gunfire and explosions echoed throughout the streets. Heavily armed men executed elderly civilians in front of everyone, while women and children were dragged, screaming and crying, onto a truck.
The men either died fighting back or knelt in submission, forced to watch their wives and children being taken away.
The night brought nothing but despair, turning the small town into a scene from hell. Thick smoke hung in the air, obscuring the view and any hope.
“No!!”
From a corner of the rubble, the laughter of men drowned out the sobs and pleas of women, as no amount of begging could awaken any mercy in these monsters.
“Naeem…”
Amid the chaos, a man trembled, lowering his head even more as he heard his wife’s cry. His body shook, too afraid to stand up, his love for her overwhelmed by his fear of the gunmen.
In this war-torn desert, their lives were small and fragile. Any attempt to defend their dignity would end with them dead like the corpses on the roadside.
“Boom!”
Suddenly, a streak of green flame shot across the night sky, followed by a red-and-blue figure gliding down from above.
“Hey, fellas! Friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is here, and I brought some pumpkin treats.”
Before Spider-Man even landed, the pumpkin bombs in his hand exploded among the armed men who were about to fire.
“Enemy attack!”
“Boom!!”
A terrifying explosion silenced the screams as body parts and rubble were hurled through the air, scattered by the shockwave.
The sudden chaos caused the remaining armed men to scream in panic.
“Open fire!”
“Shoot him!”
“Kill him!”
In an instant, armed men scattered across the town rushed toward the street, even turning the turret of an armored vehicle toward Spider-Man.
“Boom!”
The next moment, another streak of green flame blazed through the sky as Harry, standing on his glider, dropped more pumpkin bombs. The town was once again engulfed in explosions.
“Boom!”
“Ahh!!”
“Kill them!!”
“Boom, boom, boom!!”
The battlefield was ablaze, gunfire and explosions mixing in a cacophony of destruction. As Spider-Man swung from his webs, dodging bullets, he latched onto Harry’s glider and the two vanished into the night sky.
“Spider-Man, you just killed someone,” Harry said, looking down at Xia Luo hanging from his glider.
Xia Luo scratched his head. “Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”
When they arrived near the city, they had headed straight for the Ten Rings’ camp, but stumbled upon this horrific scene along the way. Surprisingly, the two of them had acted in unison without hesitation.
Hearing Xia Luo’s response, Harry smiled. “Fine. They’re not exactly human, anyway.”
“But it seems like the people here need our help. We might have to delay rescuing Tony. What do you think?” Though phrased as a question, Harry was already steering the glider back toward the desert town.
“Let’s deal with the big guy first,” Xia Luo said.
As the town ruins drew closer, Xia Luo released his web, plummeting down directly onto the armored vehicle.
“Boom!”
With a loud crash, the armored vehicle shook slightly. Immediately, armed men poked their heads out and opened fire on Spider-Man.
“Ratatatata!”
“Thwip, thwip…”
In a flash, webs shot out, silencing the gunfire. With a powerful tug, Spider-Man dragged the men out of the vehicle, sending them flying into the night.
“Ahh!!”
“No!”
“Bang, bang, bang!!”
As Harry swooped overhead, the dismembered bodies fell among the ruins.
“Spider-Man, nice teamwork,” Harry laughed.
Xia Luo glanced at the waves of armed men approaching. “There are at least a hundred more of them. How many bombs do you have left?”
“I’m all out.”
“You sure?”
Harry guided his glider over the ruins, contemplating whether to stay and help. There were just too many enemies, and even Spider-Man would have trouble handling such a large, well-armed group.
But Harry soon realized he was wrong.
Xia Luo leapt into the crumbling walls of a building, using the debris for cover as he darted through the warzone.
“Thwip, thwip!”
Suddenly, thick webs shot out from behind the walls, trapping a dozen armed men.
“Ahhh!!”
“What is this?”
“No!!”
In shock, the armed men watched as the slender red-and-blue figure spun around, flinging the webbed men into the oncoming crowd like ragdolls.
“What kind of monster is this?”
“Ahhh!!”
The sound of bodies crashing together echoed through the night, with cries of pain following.
Watching from his glider, Harry murmured, “So what Coulson said was true. Spider-Man really does have that much strength.”
Before Harry could act, one of the armed men pointed a rocket launcher at Xia Luo.
“Watch out!”
“Boom!”
Just as Harry shouted his warning, a rocket-propelled grenade shot toward Xia Luo, leaving a fiery trail behind.
“Thwip!”
In the blink of an eye, Xia Luo’s web-shooter switched modes, releasing a massive web from his wrist. The RPG became entangled in the web, its momentum halted, and it rebounded back into the crowd.
“Boom!!”
The RPG exploded among the enemies, unleashing devastating force. Amid the carnage, the remaining armed men stared at Spider-Man in terror, and chaos erupted.
“Retreat!”
“Fall back!”
“He’s a monster!!”
Watching the panicked retreat of the armed men, Harry was stunned.
“That actually worked?”
“Hey, what are you waiting for? Go help those people,” Xia Luo called out as he chased after the fleeing men.
“You’re surrounded! Drop your weapons!”
During the chase, Xia Luo switched to his backup web-shooters, firing webs that ensnared another group of fleeing men. With a burst of strength, he yanked them back toward him.
Before they even hit the ground, Xia Luo was already moving.
At the same time, the soft blue glow in his eyes shifted to red.
“Time to feast!”
“Crack, crack…”
The red-and-blue nanotech suit writhed and morphed into black. As Xia Luo melted into the shadows of the night, he felt the familiar surge of power spreading through his body.
The power of the symbiote!
Not only that, but the nanotech on his back formed four sharp, black metal spider legs that extended and twisted like spears.
In an instant, the sharp appendages gleamed, cutting through the air, extinguishing life wherever they struck.
“Thwip, thwip, thwip…”
As the black spears pierced through the bodies of the armed men, Xia Luo’s figure darted forward, and the webbed men fell to the ground, motionless.
Blood sprayed into the air like drifting flower petals. Harry stood frozen, his mouth hanging open in shock.
“Was that… Did I see that right?”
In the fiery ruins, the black figure moved swiftly, the spider legs curling and extending like liquid, slicing through enemies with deadly precision.
Even the barrage of bullets that struck the black suit were absorbed into the symbiote.
Explosions and fire—things the symbiote normally feared—were powerless to stop the slaughter.
“Thwip…”
A man hiding behind a wall didn’t react in time, and the black spider leg pierced his chest, sending blood spraying.
Through the hole in the man’s chest, the woman cowering behind him saw the red-eyed demon, drenched in blood.
No, he wasn’t a demon.
He was a god sent to save them!
Reader discussion
0 Comments
Be the first reader to share a thought about this chapter.