"Hoola! Hoola!"
In the central square of Wakanda's royal city, tens of thousands of Wakandans gathered to form a hollow circle. With solemn expressions, they watched the two men standing in the center of the ring and shouted in unison.
As the sun rose, Black Panther T'Challa's challenge to M'Baku of the Jabari Tribe officially began.
They had to strip off their combat suits and fight using the most primitive weapons to determine the true king of Wakanda.
Batman chose to respect Wakanda's traditions. At this moment, he was lurking on the roof of a tall building five kilometers away from the square, speaking in low tones with Venom Robin.
"Report what happened, Robin," Batman said quietly, his gaze fixed on T'Challa and M'Baku as they clashed with spears and shields.
Venom Robin recounted everything that had transpired in the Wakandan temple without leaving out a single detail, though he did have one nagging doubt:
"Old Bats, you said in our encrypted comms earlier that the witch named Amora was targeting the Black Panther totem?"
"But after T'Challa entered the temple, I went straight up against the witch and her lackey. I didn't see them do anything to the totem."
"Could you have gotten it wrong?"
Batman was still translating Venom Robin's description into visual images in his mind, analyzing the Enchantress and the guy named Skurge frame by frame.
Hearing Venom Robin's question, Batman didn't answer immediately. Instead, he countered with a question of his own:
"You said you were controlled by the Enchantress the moment you saw them? How did you break free?"
Venom Robin blinked. How was he supposed to know how he broke free from the mind control?
Robin only remembered looking into the Enchantress's eyes, and then he fell into a daze. By the time he snapped out of it, T'Challa was already holding him, rolling around on the ground.
Venom Robin replied honestly:
"I don't know, but there's a high probability T'Challa woke me up."
Batman withdrew his gaze from the distant square and looked at Venom Robin.
"The Enchantress controlled you, and Skurge the Executioner killed the giant purple panther guarding the outside of the temple, but they did nothing else?"
Venom Robin shook his head, still perfectly honest:
"Nope. Did you find any clues, Old Bats?"
Batman patted Robin on the shoulder.
"I haven't either. Watch them."
As Batman spoke, he pointed toward the two men fighting in the distant square.
"What's so interesting about bare-knuckle brawling..." Venom Robin curled his lip as he watched T'Challa and M'Baku grapple with each other.
From the very beginning, Venom Robin had been passionate about using weapons in combat. Ever since Khonshu, the Moon God, bestowed power upon him, he had used crescent darts and then short batons. Only with a weapon in hand did he feel fighting was truly satisfying.
However, influenced by Batman, Venom Robin fought bare-handed most of the time. For a long period, he didn't even know what weapon suited him best.
Watching T'Challa and M'Baku exchange blows with spears and shields, Venom Robin—who just dozens of minutes ago had been swinging an axe against the Executioner—suddenly found it boring.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up as he remembered something he had previously overlooked.
"Old Bats, I need to go back to the Wakandan temple!"
Batman looked at Robin, puzzled.
"What do you want to do?"
Venom Robin said excitedly:
"I overlooked something when I described the underground space to you earlier! The Executioner was rescued by the Enchantress, but that axe is still there!"
Batman's eyebrow twitched slightly.
"You want that axe?"
"Uh-huh, uh-huh!" Venom Robin nodded vigorously, his anticipation palpable.
"I'll go with you, and check if there are any clues you missed while we're at it," Batman said.
"Then what are we waiting for!" Venom Robin leaped up instantly, taking the lead by swinging down the building using his tentacles.
The Executioner's strength wasn't anything special, but his axe was an excellent weapon for Venom Robin. He had clashed with it for a long time using an axe made of his own symbiote matter, and it hadn't sustained any damage at all.
Although Venom Robin could manifest weapons himself, those were ultimately extensions of his own body. They were vulnerable to fire and sonic waves, and even the vibrations caused by clashing with others could cause a symbiote weapon to collapse.
It was precisely because of this that Robin failed to gain the upper hand when he initially fought the Executioner for the axe.
But if he took the Executioner's axe for himself, the weaknesses of a symbiote weapon would no longer exist.
While T'Challa and M'Baku were still fighting, Batman had already swung down on his grappling lines alongside Venom Robin, returning to Wakanda's underground space and arriving in front of the temple.
"The axe is still there! The Executioner really didn't take it with him!" Upon arriving, Venom Robin's immediate priority was to look for the axe.
Meanwhile, Batman swiftly scanned the underground space, attempting to find any trace or clue regarding the Enchantress's origins.
The ground and surrounding walls here were covered in marks left behind by the battle between Robin and the Executioner. Batman failed to find the clues he wanted.
Instead, it was Venom Robin who ran excitedly over to Batman holding the axe, presenting it like a prize. It was only then that Batman frowned.
There were patterns on the axe. These patterns were extremely shallow and fine; one couldn't see them at all without looking closely.
These patterns wound around the handle of the axe, ultimately converging where the handle met the blade, forming a peculiar script that resembled writing.
Venom Robin couldn't understand it, but Batman happened to have dabbled in this area. He recognized that this was a type of alphabet known as "Runes."
However, these inscriptions were even more ancient than the Runes Batman knew, to the point where he couldn't decipher the specific meaning of the text.
"What are you looking at, Old Bats?" Seeing that Batman hadn't returned the axe after holding it for a long time, Venom Robin urged impatiently.
Batman pointed at those few Runic letters.
"When we go back, look for records of this script in this world."
Venom Robin nodded repeatedly. He didn't care what was written on it. After taking the axe back from Batman, he eagerly slung it onto his back.
By now, Robin had shifted from his three-meter-tall, incredibly bulky Venom form back into his four-foot-tall self, wearing a white burial shroud suit.
This giant axe looked exceptionally awkward on Venom Robin's back. Because the handle was quite long, Robin even had to wear it at a sharp angle.
But Robin didn't mind at all. Having obtained a new weapon, he seemed to be in an exceptionally joyful mood, even opening his large mouth to say:
"I'll help you look it up when we get back!"
Batman nodded, ignoring the expression of immense regret that crossed Robin's face immediately after saying those words.
"By the way, Old Bats, how did you defeat that Shocker guy? Tell me about it," Venom Robin asked curiously, the axe on his back.
"I relied on the Rogue Mech—the one parked in the Batwing's hangar earlier," Batman explained.
"Did you ditch it? I didn't see you piloting it back to Wakanda's royal city," Robin noted.
"I couldn't bring it back, it's too big. I decided to leave it in Wakanda." Batman shook his head, leading Venom Robin out of the underground space.
"What?! We contributed manpower and effort, and we even have to lose a mech in the process?! I haven't even sat in it to try it out yet!" Venom Robin's eyes widened, having completely forgotten about the fact that he had just acquired a new weapon.
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