Goodbye, Venom

Chapter 173

Beneath the dazzling lights of the spacecraft and Interstellar Arena, atop the bloody and brutal Duel Arena.

Including the Giant Two-Headed Snake, the Scythe Man, the hulking Stone Man, and the Tentacle Child, who had all performed brilliantly in the earlier battles, eight challenger creatures faced one another.

For a moment, the Duel Arena fell into brief silence, sharply contrasting with the lively spectator stands outside. The cheers of hundreds of thousands of alien spectators boiled over, the waves of sound nearly lifting the entire arena off its foundation.

"Mr. Kyle, which four do you think will survive until the end?" Bai Bo asked excitedly, rubbing its claws together.

Kyle gently shook his head, narrowing his eyes slightly as he said in a low voice, "Hard to say. At this point, there are definitely still some who haven’t shown their true strength."

"If I had to name the safer bets, the alien kid with tentacles and the man with blade hands have much better odds of surviving. They should basically make it into the final four," Kyle judged from experience.

"Really? Then I’m placing a bet." As Bai Bo spoke, it hurriedly pulled out an electronic device resembling a touchscreen phone.

Kyle shrugged and focused his attention on the Duel Arena.

The man whose hands were scythes could easily slice steel armor in half with his sharp hand blades, and he possessed supersonic burst speed. With such terrifying physical offense and mobility, even if he chose not to attack and merely circled the arena at high speed, no one could touch him.

As for the Tentacle Child, judging from the earlier melee, his strength, speed, combat skills, and durability were all top-tier, comparable to an unarmored Captain America. And with those flesh-colored tentacles he wielded so freely, capable of both offense and defense, as well as absorbing others’ blood for nourishment and ultra-fast regeneration…

Wait!

Kyle abruptly rose from his seat, staring fixedly at the child below, whose tentacles swayed constantly around his body.

As if sensing his gaze, the Tentacle Child casually looked up. His emotionless dark blood-red eyes swept toward Kyle’s seating area before quickly withdrawing, returning his focus to the challengers around him.

Despite nearly a hundred meters between them, Kyle still sensed something both familiar and unfamiliar from the Tentacle Child.

"An illusion?" Kyle murmured.

"Hey, why are you standing up? Are you going to let people watch the match or not?!"

His view blocked by Kyle’s sudden movement, an alien spectator behind him cursed in dissatisfaction and tried to step forward to argue.

Kyle turned back, sweeping his cold eyes over those behind him as an almost imperceptible pressure radiated outward.

As if they were facing a savage, powerful monster, the previously aggressive alien spectators immediately wilted and no longer dared meet his gaze.

"Sorry, everyone." Bai Bo quickly tried to smooth things over and tugged at Kyle’s pant leg. Following its cue, Kyle silently sat back down.

"Mr. Kyle, what’s wrong?" Bai Bo asked in surprise.

"Nothing. Keep watching the match." Kyle answered calmly, but his flickering gaze drifted back to the Duel Arena. This time, it locked onto the Tentacle Child and did not move away in the slightest.

Inside, he was nowhere near as calm as he appeared.

On the Duel Arena, the remaining eight challengers finally moved at once. Having each selected an opponent, they split into four smaller areas and began their battles.

The Tentacle Child chose the hulking Stone Man carrying a spiked mace as his opponent.

He sprinted forward, accelerated, and sprang into the air. His small body shot toward the Stone Man like a heavy cannonball, while more than ten tentacles across his body whipped and fluttered like hair in a gale.

"Kid! You actually dare pick me as your opponent? I’ll pound you into meat paste!!" The Stone Man bared his teeth in fury, gripping the enormous spiked mace in both hands. He raised it like a baseball bat and, after gathering strength, violently swung it forward.

With tremendous brute force pouring through his wrists, the huge, heavy mace whipped up a howling gale, perfectly sealing off the Tentacle Child’s path.

The spectators cried out, seemingly already seeing the bloody sight of the Tentacle Child’s tiny body bursting apart against the mace in midair.

"It’s time you showed your true abilities." Kyle murmured softly.

As though proving his words, before the stunned eyes of countless alien spectators, a pair of crimson wings suddenly spread from the Tentacle Child’s back. The wings tore through his shirt as they opened, then beat forward with a flutter, bringing his body to an abrupt halt in midair.

The Stone Man’s expression changed drastically. His swinging mace brushed past the child’s nose and missed, then slammed diagonally into the floor with excessive force. A deep, thunderous boom rang out as the concrete flooring cracked and caved in.

Seizing the chance, several tentacles shot forward like whips, tightly coiling around the Stone Man’s neck.

"Damn it!" The Stone Man roared, releasing the overly heavy mace. One hand grabbed the tentacles around his neck, while the other reached out to seize the Tentacle Child.

Expressionless, the Tentacle Child beat his wings and lightly glided aside, evading the stone arm.

He landed behind the Stone Man’s head, extending Dark Claws from both hands and driving them accurately into the opponent’s eyes. A third of the claws sank into the stone eye sockets, bursting the eyeballs.

With his vulnerable eyes injured, the Stone Man screamed in agony. Yet through the pain, he finally seized the Tentacle Child’s clawed wrists, gripping both of them in a single hand.

The Tentacle Child struggled with all his strength, clearly to no avail. In a pure contest of strength, the Stone Man feared no one.

"Now that I’ve got you, don’t think of running!" The Stone Man shut his bleeding eyes, clenched the Tentacle Child’s hands tightly, and raised him high. With brute force, he tore apart several tough tentacles wrapped around his neck.

"Die!" The Stone Man roared, smashing the Tentacle Child in his hand into the ground. Rubble flew in every direction, and the already cracked floor collapsed further.

As if still unconvinced, the Stone Man smashed him down twice more before finally releasing his grip.

The Tentacle Child lay unconscious on the ground, motionless. His wings were broken, his arms nearly dislocated or snapped, and his body was covered in blood and wounds.

"The victor is me!" The Stone Man raised both hands. His empty eye sockets continued to stream bloody tears, making for an utterly gruesome sight.

The spectators cheered loudly, but their cheers soon turned into cries of alarm.

They stared in shock at the Stone Man. Two tentacles, faded black, slowly rose from the heavily injured Tentacle Child on the ground. While the Stone Man was completely off guard, they shot into his eye sockets.

The tentacles stirred rapidly inside, enough to churn his brain into mush.

The Stone Man’s body stiffened, his laughter stopped, and he crashed backward to the ground, lifeless.

This sudden reversal drew waves of thunderous applause from the spectators.

In the stands, only Kyle frowned deeply, his heart filled with uncertainty.

There was absolutely no mistake. Venom was symbiotically attached to that Tentacle Child!