At present, Su Ming is about 400 meters away from the left wing position of Jibo and the Druid on the battlefield. The buildings and plants around have all been leveled by the battle, creating a large open area.
To sneak over unnoticed, a bit of cleverness is needed.
Su Ming scratched the Magic Floating Cloak by his neck. It seemed to be pretending to be dead, drooping behind his head.
"Hey, Cloak, can you change color?"
The Magic Floating Cloak shook its collar, indicating it couldn't.
If the wearer is a mage, there are a few associated magic spells that can change its color, its style, turn into a suit or a robe, and it can even stretch, shorten, or become a scarf.
The owner can summon it across planes with a spell or control it remotely across dimensions, but that's also limited to mages.
The Magic Floating Cloak was picked up by The Ancient One, but it was unwilling to recognize The Ancient One as its master, and it looked down on all the disciples of Kama Taiji.
The Supreme Mage was too reticent and too boring to be around. Others didn't have the talent or power to deserve the treasure of a mage.
The Ancient One didn't force it, just letting it float in the glass cabinet of the New York Temple, waiting for the right person.
Until this time, an accident occurred. The impact of the dimensional collision affected the Three Great Temples, leaving it without magic power for a short time, and then it was rebooted by Su Ming using the Manhattan Gem...
"If you can't even change color, what's the use of you?" Su Ming said disdainfully, flicking the collar with his finger.
He planned to disguise himself as a corpse and 'slide' over the ground. However, his uniform was too conspicuous, and swaggering past hundreds of mages wasn't a good idea.
So, he thought of covering himself with a piece of cloth to look like a corpse wrapped in rag, but it seemed the cloaking ability of the Magic Floating Cloak was limited to mages...
If the cloak had a mouth, it would definitely complain about how many mages regarded it as a treasure, yet to this crude guy, it turned out to be useless? Is it my fault that you don't know magic?
Feeling indignant, it decided to immediately take Su Ming into the sky for another airdrop, directly sending him beside the Druid.
However, Su Ming held tightly to the broken wall used as cover, and several attempts by the cloak couldn't wrench him away.
These mages are different from the previous insects. Those insects had no ranged attacks, so airdrops were of course okay, but in Dark Magic, elemental-type magic were aplenty.
Lightning, ice, flame, curses — almost anything could be thrown without an incantation. Even if the cloak and Holy Statue Armor have anti-magic power, they can't just stubbornly fight through unknown magic, right?
Speaking of changing colors, he remembered picking up something with color-changing ability before...
Su Ming took out the symbiote from the carry pouch on his leg. It now looked like a rectangular black brick with a very docile appearance.
If it hadn't been for the large mouth full of sharp teeth on its top, Su Ming would have believed it.
He patted the cloak, telling it to fly over and play with Holloway.
Then he held the symbiote in front of his eyes.
"Listen, I know you can understand human language, now I need you to turn into a rag."
The symbiote indeed obeyed, but what it turned into looked more like a piece of leather, shiny and very small, inadequate to cover Su Ming's entire body.
Su Ming knew what was happening. It needed a host and energy, otherwise Earth's gravity would weaken it over time until its death.
After hesitating for less than a second, Su Ming took off his Holy Statue Armor. He still had an exoskeleton made of X Metal inside, not needing to worry about defense.
The initial plan was to study the symbiote's problem later, but now it needed to be dealt with beforehand.
However, once thought of, an idea deemed feasible should be pursued. Hesitating isn't a tactical choice but rather a lost opportunity.
"Come on, infest me." Su Ming pressed the symbiote against his chest, the cold touch sending goosebumps all over his body: "First of all, let me remind you, there are some holes on the human body that you shouldn't randomly drill into, or I'll roast you over a fire for a hundred years."
It's unclear if the symbiote heard, but it quickly melted, crawling over Su Ming's body like asphalt, extending countless sharp tiny tentacles, piercing between the spinal gaps into the spinal cord, into every muscle's nerve cluster, completely connecting its nerves with Su Ming's.
The process was extremely painful, but despite Su Ming's strong endurance, sweat still dripped down his forehead.
However, that foreign body sensation soon vanished, and he and the symbiote now seemed to be one, without the burden of any clothing, instead, feeling an astonishing power surging within the body with every gesture.
He could feel the wind brushing against his body, sense the slight vibration of the ground, smell through his skin, and metamorphose into any form at will.
Don't ask, if you ask, it's strong, invincible.
There weren't any instruments here to test strength, but Su Ming felt like he could raze the heavens and earth now.
If Superman were to appear now, one punch would send him flying from Metropolis to the Arctic Lonely Fortress.
However, in the next moment, he calmed down through reason and calculation, realizing the influence of the symbiote.
His current power wouldn't exceed 100 tons, as the symbiote had just infested and had yet to return to its peak state. With this power, never mind Superman, even King Arthur was superior.
It instilled a sense of overconfidence and arrogance.
Frowning, Su Ming patted his chest, actually hitting the symbiote, though it looked more like he was hitting himself.
"I know I might be your strongest host, but there's always someone greater, curb your frantic thoughts."
In the next instant, those exaggerated thoughts indeed vanished, and the symbiote temporarily behaved.
Su Ming breathed a sigh of relief; luckily, he could control it. This symbiote hadn't gone through many hosts, its mind relatively simple, with some sporadic impulses and emotions that he could subdue.
The influence from the symbiote was greater than anticipated, if it were a Venom tainted by Deadpool, he'd probably go mad too.
But there remained a problem; the symbiote would dig into the host's inner thoughts, amplifying the dark side or bloodthirsty desires.
Many symbiote hosts become lost in excessive slaughter, turning into slaves of power, puppets of the symbiote. Su Ming needs to be more cautious in utilizing his deathblow skills, avoiding indulgence in bloodthirsty desires.
However, for now, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Su Ming gained a transformable body, significantly enhanced regeneration capabilities, needing only to train the coordination between X Metal and the symbiote.
Originally, the symbiote's self-healing was more like patching holes in the host's body, reinforcing wherever lacking with its own tissue. Once symbiote and host separate, the host is often left half-dead. This symbiote, however, shared its liquid self-healing ability with the host, presumably a result of magical modification.
"Cough cough, Deathstroke, are you alright?"
Su Ming turned his head to find Holloway watching him somewhat guardedly, his mouth agape, as if witnessing something astonishing.
Could he not be astonished? He just witnessed a liquid monster 'devour' a living person, blood and mucus flying everywhere. It was already a sign of strong will that he didn't scream.
Moreover, the current Deathstroke, although still in black and yellow uniform, not only had a white monocular instead of the original one but also sported a large mouth full of sharp teeth, with a snake-like tongue constantly darting in and out.
Su Ming nodded, grabbed his tongue, stuffed it back into his mouth, and said indistinctly, "Not bad."
"Phew… nothing, it's just good you're still you." Holloway sighed in relief. Deathstroke was already terrifying enough; turning into a monster would be unbearable.
"Rest assured, with the symbiote with me, it's the safest." Probably...
"I know, but it's better to be cautious," the doctor seriously urged, as the creature was no joke. Now Deathstroke's muscles had doubled, making him almost entirely muscular.
Su Ming smiled, patting his shoulder without saying a word, though that smile looked a bit scary. Holloway meant well, but Deathstroke didn't need others' validation.
Then, with a thought, the X Metal and symbiote began exerting joint force, his neck slowly extending like a periscope, revealing a head at the tip to reassess the battlefield situation.
Within the time the symbiote had been parasitic, just as Su Ming anticipated, the battlefield situation started tilting in favor of the Black Mage Corps.
The mages of Kama Taiji were noticeably beginning to gasp, and many mages showed signs of backlash after casting spells. Su Ming now had to join the battle as soon as possible.