The shield rolled across the floor as Steve locked Xia Luo’s body with both his hands and legs, showcasing his exceptional combat skills.
“Spider-Man, you’ve lost,” Steve said coldly.
Even though his entire body was immobilized, Xia Luo smiled instead of panicking. “Impressive, Captain. Now this is getting interesting.”
With those words, Xia Luo stopped struggling. After all, this level of restraint couldn’t truly harm him. Slowly, he extended two fingers and waved them in front of Steve’s face.
“What are you trying to do?” Steve frowned.
Xia Luo grinned. “I’m going to poke!”
“Argh!!”
In the next moment, Steve screamed in pain as Xia Luo took advantage of the situation, breaking free from the hold. Mimicking Steve’s previous actions, Xia Luo quickly locked Steve’s body with his own hands and legs.
“Captain, you’ve lost,” Xia Luo teased.
“Damn bug!”
An enraged Steve began to glow with an even stronger blood-red aura. His strength surged, and the aura quickly condensed into tentacles, much like those of an octopus, emitting a dangerous energy.
At that moment, Xia Luo suddenly recalled something Carter had mentioned: Steve, infused with the power of Hydra!
“Crack, crack…”
One by one, the blood-red tentacles slithered up Xia Luo’s body, binding him and applying tremendous pressure.
“Crack, crack…”
Under the violent squeezing, the nanometal on Xia Luo’s suit began to emit groans of strain. The tentacles hoisted him into the air while Steve slowly rose to his feet, his face dark and menacing.
“It’s over.”
“Not quite.”
Xia Luo’s eyes, too, began to glow red as his nanometal turned jet-black, forming venom-like spears that stabbed toward Steve’s eyes.
Squelch!
“Argh!!”
Steve screamed once more, his blood-red octopus tentacles loosening their grip. In an instant, Xia Luo flipped backward, retreating while launching a series of spear attacks, riddling Steve’s body with holes.
Splat, splat, splat!
Blood sprayed across the cabin as Steve’s body staggered, yet the blood-red aura around him only intensified.
“Crack…”
With a grotesque sound akin to bones grinding together, Steve’s uniform disintegrated in the blood-red energy, and his exposed muscles swelled. Black veins slithered from his spine, spreading throughout his body.
From his back, a black spine began to merge with the blood-red energy, extending more octopus-like tentacles, as an overwhelming evil aura erupted from him.
Thwack, thwack, thwack!
In the plane cabin, nine tentacles flailed wildly, but Xia Luo skillfully dodged them all, weaving through the attacks with precision. However, the force of the blows left the metal walls of the cabin warped and dented.
Suddenly, a hole in the plane’s fuselage expanded, and the fierce high-altitude winds swept Xia Luo outside.
Crack, crack, crack…
With the help of his blood-red tentacles, Steve tore through the damaged plane and emerged into the open air, unaffected by the raging winds. The power of Hydra healed his wounds quickly, restoring his vision.
“Come out, I know you haven’t left,” Steve growled, scanning his surroundings.
The blood-red clouds seemed to follow the transport plane wherever it went. Slowly, the plane began to descend toward the neon-lit city below.
Amid the howling winds, a black venomous spear shot out from the side of the plane’s wing.
Boom!
In an instant, Steve’s blood-red tentacles lashed out, but the black spear turned to liquid, wrapping around them.
“Come here!”
With a powerful jolt from his back, Steve’s tentacles yanked Xia Luo from beneath the wing.
Boom!!
At the same moment, Xia Luo swung a punch containing several tons of force toward Steve. Steve, unfazed, countered with a punch of his own.
Boom!!
The clash of raw power reverberated through the air, as blood-red tentacles and black venomous spears clashed repeatedly.
Thanks to the enhancements from the black spine, Steve’s strength continued to increase. Yet, despite his immense power, he couldn’t overpower Xia Luo in a short amount of time.
Thanks to the augmentation from Venom mode, Xia Luo now possessed 70 tons of strength. Combined with his spider-sense, he flawlessly dodged Steve’s relentless attacks. If not for the eerie nature of Hydra’s power, the fight wouldn’t have dragged on this long.
For now, neither seemed able to gain the upper hand. Meanwhile, the transport plane was falling apart due to their fierce battle, with chunks of metal being torn off by the wind and the plane shaking violently.
Pop!
Suddenly, the webbing snapped and was blown away by the high-altitude wind. Steve seized the moment, grabbing Xia Luo’s wrist and crushing the web-shooter with his grip.
“You can die now!”
With a loud shout, Steve flung Xia Luo into the air.
Whoosh!
Caught in the turbulence, Xia Luo shot out his organic webbing, pulling himself back to the plane’s wing. With Venom mode still active, he scaled the plane with ease, his black venomous spears anchoring him firmly as he launched another assault on Steve.
Meanwhile, down in the city, countless citizens gasped as they watched the plane plummet from the sky.
“Oh my God, the plane’s going to crash!”
“Dear Lord, don’t let it land here!”
“Look, there’s someone on it!”
“Impossible!!”
As the plane skimmed the rooftops, sending violent gusts through the city streets, Steve suddenly snapped back to his senses, realizing something important. He immediately abandoned the fight and rushed back to the cockpit to regain control of the transport.
He hadn’t expected fighting a “bug” would take so much time.
Big mistake.
Xia Luo peered into the cockpit, watching Steve’s frantic attempt to stabilize the plane. Internally, he couldn’t help but scoff.
Good grief, wasn’t this guy acting all tough a moment ago?
Boom…
As the plane slowly started to ascend, Xia Luo calculated the flight path. With the plane veering off course, he shot out a web, grabbing the shield from a corner and pulling it toward him.
Anyone who’s been friends with Captain America knows one thing—Cap doesn’t know how to fly a plane.
“Buckle up, Captain, we’re going down!”
“What?”
Steve felt a sinking dread as he rushed out of the cockpit, only to see Xia Luo approaching the propeller with the shield in hand.
“No, stop!!”
Steve’s face twisted with panic as he sent his blood-red tentacles flying toward Xia Luo, but it was too late.
Crash!!
The shield crashed into the propeller, causing an explosion of sparks. Thick smoke began billowing from the engine, and the plane, after shuddering violently, tilted and began spiraling toward the distant coastline.
“No!!”
On the tilting plane, Steve let out a furious roar as he charged at Xia Luo.
“Damn bug! I’ll tear you apart!!”
“That’s a familiar line. Good luck with that.”
Xia Luo waved mockingly before flipping off the wing.
As he fell through the air, his armpit webs spread out into glider wings, carrying him toward the towering skyscrapers below.
Steve watched, suppressing his boiling rage, before turning and heading for the cargo hold.
The parachutes had been ripped away by the storm winds. He had no other choice.
In the cold atmosphere, the plane’s electrical systems were destroyed, and the freezing chamber had stopped functioning.
Steve approached the crystal coffin and gazed tenderly at the figure inside.
Dressed in a red floral dress, Peggy Carter lay peacefully within, untouched by time for over seventy years.
That night at the dance, he had killed her with his own hands, finally making her his forever.
She would never leave him.
Not now, not ever.
Resting his head against the icy coffin, Steve and Peggy were separated only by a thin layer of frost.
He closed his eyes, reliving the past, while the blood-red tendrils from his spine spread even further, enveloping the two of them.
Boom!!
In the next instant, the transport plane crashed into the shoreline, engulfed in a sea of fire.
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