Chapter 267: Is Venom Dead?
Ross looked at the smoking ruins of the collapsed house and brought the radio to his lips. "Send Team B in for a sweep."
Under the Captain's lead, Team B approached the rubble and began clearing the debris.
"No way... are they really that weak?" Silas, watching from his invisible perch, felt a flicker of doubt. If Eddie and Venom were dead, he'd have to go back to the Shadow Kingdom, pull out a spare symbiote, and start the experiment all over again.
Team B quickly unearthed Eddie's body, along with a limp, shapeless mass of black liquid. The soldiers gingerly scraped Venom into a new container, though it was impossible to tell if the creature still clung to life.
Seeing the threat neutralized, Ross walked over to the prone Eddie. He knelt down and whispered into the man's ear, "I have one wish—one day, I'm going to wipe every last one of you freaks off the face of the earth!"
Ross reached out and checked Eddie's vitals. His breathing was shallow, ragged—barely there. He wouldn't last much longer.
"Pitiful little thing," Ross sneered. He pulled the Shadow Mask from his pocket and twirled it. "Sorry, I'm tired of looking at your ugly face."
Slap!
Ross pressed the mask firmly onto Eddie's face. He stood up and adjusted his uniform. "Prepare for extraction."
The moment the mask touched Eddie's skin, a surge of dark energy began to circulate. It flowed through his veins, stitching together internal ruptures and pulling him back from the very edge of the abyss. Eddie's breathing quickened. His fingers twitched, and his eyelids fluttered as the mask's power revitalized his system.
Ross, his back turned, called out to his men, "Successful mission, boys. Though it looks like we're bringing back a corpse."
"General... sir... behind you..." one of the soldiers stammered, his eyes wide with terror.
Ross caught the look on their faces. Without missing a beat, he drew his sidearm and spun around, finger pulling the trigger.
Bang!
Eddie was already standing. With predatory grace, he tilted his head to let the bullet whistle past. In the same motion, his right leg whipped up, kicking the gun right out of Ross's hand.
"Aaargh!" Ross clutched his bruised hand as the pistol clattered to the floor. "You..."
He couldn't believe it. A moment ago, Eddie was a dead man walking. Now, he stood tall, eyes burning with hatred from behind the wooden mask.
Eddie ignored Ross's shock. He simply stared, a cold, silent promise of death in his eyes. Ross, a veteran soldier, quickly regained his composure and retreated toward his security detail.
CRASH!
Eddie spun and shattered the container holding the symbiote with a single kick. He caught the black mass as it fell, but Venom remained unresponsive, a dull puddle in his palms.
"He's dead, monster!" Ross laughed. At least he had managed to kill one of them.
Eddie didn't respond. He cradled Venom in his hands and then did something that stunned everyone present. He opened his mouth and swallowed the symbiote whole.
The Rooftop
"So that's his play. Smart move," Silas muttered, finally impressed.
The Shadow Mask possessed the power to heal its host, but it wasn't true immortality—if your head got blown off instantly, the mask couldn't help. However, as long as the host's body remained intact, the mask could repair almost any internal damage. By consuming Venom, Eddie was making the symbiote a biological part of himself. If Venom was part of Eddie, the mask's regenerative power would treat the symbiote as part of the host and heal it too.
"He finally used his brain," Silas sighed. He was still annoyed that Eddie had walked into such an obvious trap at Dora's house in the first place. If not for the mask, Eddie and Venom would be history.
The Battlefield
"Venom? Venom?" Eddie whispered internally, but there was no answer.
"Fire!" Ross roared. He wanted Eddie erased from existence.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The tanks opened fire. Ross was a fanatic; he didn't care that they were in a residential neighborhood. Just like his hunt for the Hulk, civilian casualties meant nothing to him as long as the target was destroyed.
Eddie glared at Ross through the mask. "I am going to kill you."
Then, he moved. His feet felt light, propelled by shadow energy. He became a blur, vanishing from the soldiers' sight.
"Where is he?!"
"Right here, you old bastard!" Eddie materialized at Ross's side, his hand clamping around the General's throat and hoisting him into the air.
Ross thrashed, his face turning a deep, bruised purple as his airway closed.
"You... will... die... monster..." Ross gasped, his legs kicking uselessly.
Ping!
A heavy sniper round whizzed toward Eddie's head.
"I won't let you die that easily. I want to savor your suffering," Eddie said, tilting his head to let the armor-piercing round pass. He dropped Ross, who collapsed to the ground, greedily sucking in air as if it were the finest wine.
Eddie looked down at him like an executioner. "How does it feel to dangle over the edge? I just went through it. It was exhilarating," he mocked.
Bullets from the surrounding soldiers forced Eddie to step away, but his work was done. He had marked Ross's shadow; he could now appear behind the General at any time for a killing blow.
"Fun times always go by so fast. See you next time, trash." Eddie grabbed a nearby soldier and dove into the Shadow Kingdom.
"F***!" Ross screamed from the ground, his voice raw. He had failed again. He began to seethe with a new level of hatred—why was he so weak? Why was power always given to the monsters?
Norway
Eddie emerged from the shadows onto the familiar Norwegian grassland and tossed the terrified soldier aside.
"Where are we?!" the soldier shrieked.
Eddie didn't have time for him. He waved a hand, and two shadows rose from the ground. These ninjas were massive, with one hand shaped like a cone and the other like a massive pincer—the Crab Shadows. They pinned the soldier down and knocked him unconscious with a single blow.
"Impressive. So you're my Shadow Legion?" Eddie felt a surge of triumph. The masked man hadn't lied.
The Crab Ninjas bowed their heads in acknowledgment.
"Great... but Venom..." Eddie looked inward. The symbiote was still silent.
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