"Do you know? That idiot Harry, he thought that by tying himself to a chair and injecting poison into his body, he could take me down with him."
"He had no idea I swapped the poison for a stimulant long ago... a full two liters of stimulant! The dosage alone is enough to drown a person alive!"
"Little Harry is dead. Dying in extreme excitement counts as my payment to him for providing this body!"
At the top of the Empire State Building on a rainy night, on the edge of a high-rise less than half a meter wide, three shadows—one green and two black—were entangled.
Batman fought ambidextrously, simultaneously engaging Morbius and the Green Goblin, who were launching attacks from both sides.
A green electric longblade and pitch-black sharp claws greeted Batman's body indiscriminately, every attack aimed straight at his vitals.
Throat, heart, eyes, abdomen, and even the groin.
The Green Goblin and Morbius tore and bit at Batman like two mad dogs, occasionally spitting sharp, ear-piercing words.
Batman only defended, never attacking. Even with the Venom inside his body in a dormant state, and even though the attacks from these two were like a violent storm...
Batman was like an unusually stubborn reef amidst the ocean waves, standing tall and immovable no matter how the waves crashed against him.
Even without Venom, Batman's current raw strength had reached the fifty-ton level. Added to that were the agility and Spider-Sense of Peter's body, combined with Batman's combat skills.
Relying only on instinct to attack, without having undergone any training—or even if they had training—Morbius and the Green Goblin were still no match for Batman.
Batman could even spare the mental capacity to think during the battle.
The reason the Green Goblin is attacking me so madly is that he knows clearly that Batman sent Norman Osborn to prison.
What is the reason for Professor Morbius being this crazy? Incited by the Green Goblin? Or the so-called motive that if he kills me, he becomes "Batman"?
No, Morbius isn't Dick and the others; he has no emotional investment in the title of "Batman".
Clang! Clang!
In less than a minute, the Green Goblin and Morbius had already launched over a hundred attacks, but without exception, they were all blocked.
Batman seemed to have no blind spots whatsoever. No matter from which direction, which tricky angle, or even from a blind angle they attacked, they were blocked by Batman without fail.
The wide cape sometimes became soft, covering their vision like dark clouds blotting out the sun, and sometimes became as hard as steel to block the claws and longblade.
They were clearly standing on the edge of a building less than half a meter wide, and the rain made the footing incredibly slippery. Every attack from the Green Goblin and Morbius caused the curtain of rain to explode outward, sending strong winds rushing against the face.
Yet strangely, Batman remained rooted to the spot. Aside from occasionally adjusting his stance and moving his feet, no matter how hard Morbius and the Green Goblin tried, they could not knock Batman off the ledge.
Batman's gaze lingered on the faces of the Green Goblin and Morbius respectively, analyzing every thought of the two.
The Green Goblin seemed to genuinely want revenge for Norman Osborn. He was risking his life to kill Batman, and as the stalemate dragged on, the green in his eyes grew deeper and deeper.
Morbius was different. Although he looked equally crazy and attacked without mercy, there was a trace of fear hidden in the depths of his eyes.
Fear?
Batman instantly understood what Morbius was thinking.
Originally, Morbius thought I was just an urban legend, but after learning from Daredevil that I actually exist, he worried that one day I would come for him.
As for where the worry lies... is it related to the criminals he killed in Ryker's Island prison?
Aside from those criminals, Batman hadn't found or heard any information about bodies being drained of blood in New York.
Morbius explicitly showed bloodlust on Ryker's Island, but there had been no news since then.
This was a contradiction. A vampire who needs to suck blood isn't sucking blood, so what is he doing?
With this speculation, Batman immediately recalled the information he found when hacking the Metropolitan Hospital system to delete his surveillance footage and investigate Professor Warren's condition.
One item was that the Metropolitan Hospital blood bank had disposed of a batch of expired plasma one day early.
Under normal circumstances, blood banks rarely handle things this way, but it wasn't absolute.
In Gotham, Batman would need a pile of lab equipment to verify his speculation, but here, he didn't.
Peter Parker's keen sense of smell was enough to help Batman distinguish scents.
A few minutes ago, when Morbius and the Green Goblin had just arrived at the top of the Empire State Building, Batman had smelled a fishy scent.
At the time, Batman combined it with the rotting smell and judged it to be the odor of the sewers.
Fresh blood is rich in iron, and Batman could smell the rust very clearly. However, separated plasma in a hospital blood bank contains no hemoglobin or iron ions.
Aside from a faint fishy smell, there would be no rust smell.
Peter Parker's sense of smell, Batman's experience, and the hacking of the Metropolitan Hospital system.
Combining the three, Batman quickly deduced the information he wanted:
It was Morbius operating in the dark, making Metropolitan Hospital dispose of plasma early and stealing it to satisfy his bloodlust.
Morbius, aside from fearing Batman himself, was likely also fearing his own sensitivity to blood after becoming a monster.
Morbius could still be saved.
"Harry..."
Batman used his left arm armor to block another slash from the Green Goblin.
The Green Goblin's eyes held only madness, only the desire to kill Batman and Peter Parker. The green in his eyes had become rich enough to fill the entire socket.
Hatred for Batman, the disappearance of his father Norman, and disappointment in Peter Parker had left his mind with only one thought: Revenge.
"Poker Face, I'm celebrating Dillon's daughter's birthday with him... Say cheese, 1, 2, 3!"
"How's it going over there?"
"Damn, don't discharge electricity at me, it makes me want to pee."
"The title 'Electric Man' sounds too ugly. I'll give you a new one, how about 'Electro'?"
"Do you need my help over there?"
Tony Stark's voice abruptly rang out in Batman's communication channel.
Unlike Batman's deadly one-against-two situation here...
Tony Stark and Max Dillon seemed to have hit it off because they were both engineers. They didn't fight at all when they met; instead, Stark ran to Dillon's house to mooch a dinner.
The communication channel was full of laughter, with an occasional gasp of amazement—though it was unclear if it was for Tony Stark in the Mark IV armor or for Max Dillon, who was covered in electric light.
"No need." Batman's voice was low, and then he cut the communication channel.
The analysis of the Green Goblin and Morbius was complete. Batman no longer just defended without attacking; instead, he switched combat stances in an instant.
The situation atop the Empire State Building reversed in a split second.