## Chapter 36: Bane’s Mania
“What? You said how many people died?”
“I don’t know, I really don’t know… Waaah…”
The soldier standing before Gordon covered his face. He was at least 6 feet tall, towering over the middle-aged Gordon by a head, but at this moment, he was crying like a 6-foot-tall baby.
“There were bodies everywhere. Bane killed most of us. The National Guard is finished. Everything is finished!”
“Where’s Bane? Where did he go?”
“He…”
The soldier abruptly covered his forehead. “Waaah… Waaah…”
Gordon wanted to ask something else: “You…”
“Waaah… Waaah!”
Gordon urged him twice, but there was no response. The soldier just kept crying. It was making Gordon extremely anxious.
“I think his post-traumatic stress disorder must have kicked in. There’s nothing we can get out of him. Calm down, Gordon. First, find someone to give him a sedative, then—”
Brocke, the sheriff standing beside Gordon, hadn’t even finished his sentence when he saw the soldier lift his head. On his face, where sadness should have been, there was… a smile!
“Hahaha, hahaha, hahahahahahahahahaha!”
…
…
…
Chen Tao looked at the Plant Master, Jason Wood, whose massive body was sprawled on the ground. He was regaining some strength, but Poison Ivy’s vines were tightly binding him, making him look like a crab waiting to be boiled.
He snorted in dissatisfaction. Poison Ivy pursed her lips, “Jason, I didn’t want to do this. I’m sorry, but…”
“Pamela, you’re a bitch.” The Plant Master was succinct.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Poison Ivy simply nodded, then in the next second, the vines extended upward, sealing the Plant Master’s mouth shut. Chen Tao even saw Poison Ivy summon a vine, which she shoved directly into his mouth. It was… well, impressive.
You really can’t underestimate the vindictiveness of women. It was like, if you’re going to betray someone, you might as well do it thoroughly, right?
Fortunately, the Plant Master was essentially a tree, not a human. Otherwise, this kind of gag would have been enough to suffocate a human.
“Batman, mind telling—”
“Ivy, mind saying a few words?”
Harley Quinn squatted nearby, looking back and forth between the two of them, feeling like an outsider.
She sulked, but nobody noticed her bad mood.
Poison Ivy pondered for a moment, “You go first.”
She had originally wanted to ask Batman about how to deal with the Plant Master, but Batman’s first words immediately captured her attention. It even made her feel a bit terrified: “I suspect Corpse Rot Black is still among us.”
“Don’t look back,” she heard Batman say softly. “I ask you to protect Professor Goldblum. That kind of potion that can greatly enhance the Green can only be created with his wisdom—if I were Corpse Rot Black, I would never let him live.”
“We can’t guard the Professor forever. Instead of passive defense, I prefer to proactively weaken the power of Corpse Rot Black, making them unable to murder the Professor. Just on the point of keeping the Professor alive, Ivy, I think we can agree.”
He said, “I know for you elemental representatives, borrowing bodies to be reborn is a piece of cake, but this kind of rebirth isn’t without a cost.”
“We’ve dealt with one of Corpse Rot Black’s claws. The other, or others, lurking in the ranks—I have no intention of letting him live either.”
Chen Tao said, “I have a plan.”
Rumbling, rumbling… a massive figure was crashing through the forest, trees snapping under his brute strength…
“The mercenaries have been eating and drinking from the food and water I’ve provided…”
Poison Ivy was a little uneasy. Although distracted and a bit uncomfortable with Batman’s “I’m your teammate” tone, she still gestured for him to continue.
“I’ve prepared everything—and then lure out the Corp…”
The huge figure stepped into the muddy swamp. Such soft, dangerous swampland is a veritable death trap. Even a mammoth stepping on it would be forced to sink, but it couldn’t stop the massive figure’s advance.
He moved fast, almost like teleporting. Where he stepped, the entire swamp water was blasted open by his huge force, providing him propulsion, making him charge forward like a nimble great ape.
“We can do it anytime… Poison Ivy, are you listening to me?”
Chen Tao said, “What are you thinking about? We’re discussing something very impo—”
But he was quickly met with Poison Ivy’s serious gaze, “There’s a big guy coming. Get ready. It looks like an ene—”
“Hahahahahahaha—ho hahaha, ho hahaha…”
That pure, childlike laughter came from afar. Chen Tao turned his head and saw Bane emerging from the woods, still holding a weapon made of a tree, likely pulled from the roadside. He was laughing continuously.
His muscles were writhing like living creatures, both grotesque and terrifying.
Before, no matter how Bane used the venom or how the venom transformed him into the cover of a “Muscle Magazine” with free-of-charge terrifying varicose veins, he still looked like a normal person. Just a bit taller, a bit stronger, and a bit more varicose vein-y.
But now…
The infinitely proliferating muscle bumps had broken through the spatial limits of normal human muscle tissue distribution. So they could only be piled on top of the original muscles one by one, stretching the skin beyond its capacity, turning it an unnatural white.
Soon, the skin, stretched to its limit, began to tear like cloth, then healed instantly. All this made Bane look like a massive pile of muscle balloon-shaped slime.
Chen Tao was speechless.
He was completely stunned by Bane’s out-of-the-box move. Wasn’t it agreed that we’d take a step back from each other, organize our forces and military strength, and then have a decisive battle? How come it’s you again? Was the understanding we reached before all wrong? Did I hallucinate? No? Wasn’t it you who deliberately sent me away to buy time and prepare your plan?
In those few seconds after seeing Bane, Chen Tao almost began to doubt himself: Was it possible that I was overthinking it? Maybe Bane just wants to come over and kill me, and all my previous analysis was wrong?
But quickly, as Bane turned his head, Chen Tao discarded this thought.
Besides the bloated and muscular limbs, what was even more surprising was that Bane’s mask was broken at the bottom, revealing a smile that Chen Tao found incredibly familiar.
“Ha! Ha! Ha!”
Bane cackled. His mouth, full of blood, was filled with… either other people’s blood… or his own.
(End of Chapter)
Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter