The symbiote clearly lacked Su Ming's patience. It almost immediately pulled out its fist lodged into the ground and launched another attack at the person in front of it.
Dust flew everywhere as the massive black fist rapidly changed shape in the air, becoming flat and sharp, like a black great sword, whistling as it came towards him.
The force was immense, but it lacked any skill. Although there's a saying about brute force overcoming skill, what Su Ming knew exceeded just a few tricks.
Such a brawny opponent was Deathstroke's favorite kind. As long as its power wasn't enough to wipe out a continent in one hit, there would always be a chance to defeat it.
With a quick Iron Plate Bridge move, Su Ming easily evaded the thick arm the symbiote swung at him, using strength from his waist to roll forward, and swung the Godslayer fiercely at the opponent's lower limbs.
A black lower leg was chopped off, looking like a stump from a swamp.
However, the severed area of the symbiote's leg quickly began to flow and melt, forming black, viscous threads that spread across the bluish stone ground, reconnecting with the fallen leg and piecing itself back together.
Not to mention it originally had four legs and four arms, losing one leg didn't affect its movement. Its ultra-fast regeneration ability was certainly tricky.
"High-speed regeneration, huh…"
Su Ming dodged the next wave of attacks while taking the opportunity to probe again with the Nightfall Greatsword. The effect was the same; an arm was disassembled, but the symbiote reattached it.
"It really has undergone magical modifications."
Originally, symbiotes didn't possess the ability to grant their hosts high-speed regeneration. They could regenerate quickly themselves, forming a protective layer to shield their hosts.
But now it seemed a mage had added some new tricks, allowing it to share this regeneration ability with its host.
"Cloak, find something useful," Su Ming rolled away again to evade another four-punch heavy blow; this creature could lengthen and shorten its arms and legs, making it hard to judge the distance.
Each attack landed on the ground, and the cracking rocks made Su Ming's voice somewhat muffled.
The cloak 'heard' the request, but wasn't sure what to do.
It placed Holloway on a nearby rooftop, then contorted its shape into a '?' in the air.
"The place where this thing jumped out from earlier should be where it was previously confined. Go see what the mage used to restrict its movement and bring it to me."
Su Ming explained intermittently as the symbiote relentlessly pursued him, as if it would never tire.
The Magic Floating Cloak understood now. With detailed instructions, it knew what to do. It straightened its body, changing from a '?' to an '!', then it slipped past the ruins, skirting the two combatants, flying towards the direction where the symbiote had appeared.
Yet, the symbiote paused, seemingly pondering something. Its massive foot shattered several scorched corpses, and almost in the next second, it changed its attack strategy.
The sticky black ooze on its body began to slowly gather into tendrils from the back. Within seconds, a mass of tentacles sprouted, swaying like underwater black seaweed in the ocean waves.
It started to launch these tentacles as projectiles.
Like a frog or chameleon's tongue, nobody knew how it stored energy, but this medium-range attack was as fast as lightning.
Though Su Ming wasn't slow, the speed of this opponent's attack was exaggerated. Perhaps he could dodge one or two, but dozens of tentacles sprouted from the symbiote's back, continuously attacking from various angles, instantly engulfing Su Ming in a storm-like assault.
No way to dodge.
Su Ming had an epiphany: this creature's combat instincts were strong. It would rapidly adjust its attack style based on the opponent, even evolving with abilities to counter him.
While he was probing its abilities, wasn't it also testing him?
Symbiotes were never mindless creatures. They had their own thoughts. Although it appeared tall and bulky, resembling a foolish brute, it was actually a cunning liquid entity full of sharp fangs.
From Su Ming's use of long weapons, it learned the benefit of extending its attack range.
Almost the moment these thoughts crossed his mind, Su Ming was struck by the tentacle attack. The tendrils, like projectiles tied to strings, hit his chest armor heavily.
Su Ming was blasted backward, crashing into the ruins not far away, leaving a human-shaped hole in the wall as he smashed into the room inside.
On a distant rooftop, Holloway immediately opened fire on the symbiote. His dual pistols roared, each bullet accurately hitting the symbiote, but they seemed to melt into its body without causing any damage.
They didn't harm it, but caught the symbiote's attention.
The symbiote quickly turned its gaze towards him, and its four hefty legs instantly powered up, launching it dozens of meters into the air, intending to grab Holloway.
However, it seemed to forget its current weight, which the frail structures couldn't bear. While Holloway could maneuver atop the ruined buildings, it couldn't.
As soon as it stepped on the rooftop, it immediately smashed through, falling down and stirring up a cloud of dust.
Holloway reloaded, adjusted his breathing, and cautiously watched the monster buried under the rubble from a safe distance.
"Boom!"
Two black tentacles emerged from the rubble, causing a mass of debris to fly high as if sprouting wings. They latched onto sturdy pillars amidst the wreckage and pulled the symbiote out from beneath.
The symbiote extended a blood-red tongue to lick its face, remembering now that with its host, it was much heavier, and shouldn't attempt such things in the future.
Seeing the creature unharmed, not a scratch on it, Holloway quickly distanced himself while fiercely opening fire.
However, the monster kept advancing under the continuous gunfire, firing back black goo at him, shifting the situation significantly against them.
Uncertain about what the creature was spitting, the doctor had to dodge every attack. However, the symbiote's spitting was like a machine gun, while its four legs kept closing in almost relentlessly.
"Blam blam blam blam..."
The symbiote seemed to have learned the advantages of ranged attacks from the firearms as well, becoming somewhat engrossed in it.
Its pace slowed, and the maw full of sharp teeth morphed into a reverse funnel, continuously spraying black liquid. The dense spitting noise merged into one, continuously erupting smoke from the doctor's hiding spot in the walls, turning them into a honeycomb.
Clusters of black flew across the sky at high speed, smashing into cover with immense force, then liquified and flowed back into the symbiote's body at its feet.
"This isn't good. If you want to play spitting games, Jack, go find your Lucy!"
As he finished speaking, a black great sword swooped from behind, instantly cleaving the symbiote in half horizontally. The sharp Nightfall Greatsword reliably came through, anytime.
Su Ming had returned.
When he was blasted away, under the dual protection of his armor and X Metal, he was only lightly wounded. Standing up with a cough, he self-healed quickly.
The force of the tentacles was much lighter than its arms or legs; though Su Ming was knocked into the building, he temporarily escaped the symbiote's sight.
Now hidden in the grass, how could he resist sneaking in an attack?
Ambushing from behind and firing black shots were things Su Ming did without pressure. Seeing the symbiote obsessed with spitting, he quietly circled from the symbiote's blind spot.
Raising the great sword high, he gathered strength, and then delivered a vicious strike.