The two of them got a kick out of the fight, but they hadn't exited the combat zone with the Gray Mist, which meant anything they did hit the Gray Mist. This retribution damage hit them so hard that they both were left with just a sliver of health.
Of course, the Gray Mist wasn't having a good time either, since the retribution damage has a fixed percentage, and he himself took full damage. Luckily, his skill set was great for scavenging, and in the first few rounds they grabbed a lot of loot. Greed tossed a few bandages on him, and his health was fully restored.
Peter also noticed something amiss; he first looked at Natasha, then at the Gray Mist. There must be Shiller involved here.
"Let's retreat for now," Natasha said, "If you still want to fight, we can go over there."
Peter nodded, agreeing with her suggestion. So the two ran out of the combat zone without looking back. Greed spoke in a tone full of regret, "What a pity, there's no control skills."
"The reputation you have now is well earned," Gray Mist said, "But could you not bring down my reputation?"
"You don't understand, I'm actually protecting your reputation. If I really used your Outer God descent skills, that would be trouble. With things as they are now, everyone will think I'm the one lacking virtue."
"You have a point," Gray Mist said, "But they won't think you're lacking virtue; they'll just think you're performing normally."
Peter and Natasha ran to the other side of the big pit, but neither of them was in a hurry to fight. They squatted there to watch the action. Sure enough, Stark and the others soon arrived.
Stark now felt very confident because on the way he and Steve had studied and found out their skill set was absurdly strong.
Without the mecha, Stark primarily relied on pay-to-win weaponry, summoning a weapon air-drop first, then using the gold vault to enhance it, followed by selecting a weapon. Each weapon was tailored with skill set adaptations, meaning different weapons had different skills. They tested this on their way, and each one was very powerful.
"Look at Tony's expression," Peter said, "He's definitely fought a few wild creatures and thinks he's unbeatable."
"How long do you think he'll last?" Natasha asked, gloating a bit.
Right at this moment, Stark charged towards the Gray Mist. The battle zones fused, and combat was triggered directly.
Peter held up three fingers and started counting down: "Three, two, one..."
Stark let out a howl and charged out. Though he was far away and the health bar couldn't be seen, it was probably down to just a sliver.
Peter had anticipated it; without the mecha, Stark was bound to be fragile. Among this group, he arguably had the weakest physical prowess, so he couldn't be given a high health volume, or else it would completely unbalance things.
Originally, his mecha was like an iron shell, certainly boasting high defense and speed. If the iron shell was removed and the guy inside had more health, it would feel like fighting a boss with multiple health bars, wouldn't it?
So, although Stark without the mecha might still have some attack capabilities, his defense was non-existent. What he feared most was those high-speed attacking monsters, and Gray Mist happened to be such a role. Sunfire Anti-Armor Landry, hitting me equals hitting yourself.
"What's going on?" Stark ran over and then said, "What's that thing? A monster from the spaceship?"
"Why are you skipping dialogue?" Natasha said somewhat helplessly, "That's obviously the Gray Mist."
"Gray Mist? The Symbiont that cleared out my cafeteria?"
"Yes, that's the Symbiont, he has an Anti-Armor piece. If your health is low, fighting him is suicidal." Peter sighed, "I really don't understand how such balance-breaking gear exists."
"Can't be, right?" Stark said, "It can't be unconditional retribution damage, otherwise whoever gets this equipment would be invincible."
"There must be some conditions, but we don't know exactly what they are. We'll have to wait until Batman comes to take a look."
So the three squatted by the pit, waiting for the next lucky participant. But Batman was not as carefree as them; he was a guy who always followed the script, even as Lord Batman.
Once he saw the gray fog by the pit, he chose to bypass it. Lord Superman said in the channel: "Last time we won, what are you scared of this time?"
"Have you considered why he's the only one there, while the other three are on the opposite side?"
"Because they're coming from different directions, right?"
"The footprints don't say that," Lord Batman replied, "They clearly went to challenge this gray monster but couldn't win and all ended up hiding on the other side, waiting to enjoy the show."
"But we fought him before; he's not strong," Lord Superman shook his head, "Also, if one can't beat him, three together surely could, right?"
"They must have tried, but didn't succeed. Because it's obvious that not everyone can go to the spaceship below; only those who win the battle can get a ticket. If they could've won, they would've found a way to do it. Since they didn't, it's clear that not even all three of them together could win."
"How can this be?" Lord Superman frowned and said, "It wasn't that strong just now, and suddenly all three of them couldn't handle it?"
"It's possible that he didn't use any abilities against us." Lord Batman shook his head and said, "Don't you think his appearance doesn't quite match the skills he uses?"
"You mean..."
"This fog looks more like the role of a psyshock attacker, but whether it turns into fists or arrows, it doesn't seem like skills he would use. I suspect that may just be one of his forms. What do you think?"
"That's indeed possible," Lord Superman said, "then let's go fight others."
The two of them headed straight for those three. Gray mist thought for a moment and said, "Should we chase?"
"No need," Greed said, "we already got the pass anyway."
As Peter and Natasha chose to retreat, the battle had already settled. The final winner was, of course, Gray mist. He dealt massive damage, and because he also tanked a lot, his data was off the charts, undoubtedly securing victory.
Of course, winners get prizes, and the prize was a 'Spaceship Cabin Door Pass'.
"Then there's no need for us to wait here," Gray mist said, "let's go down and start scavenging first. Come on."
"Wait," Greed said, "we can't go down yet. Take a closer look at the pass."
Gray mist took a look at the cabin door pass they obtained and then realized that the red on the back wasn't a pattern but bloodstains.
"There must be monsters inside the spaceship, and they're definitely not ordinary monsters," Greed said, "the little monsters we usually encounter don't have skill sets, you can clear them without taking damage, but if there's an elite monster inside, with a card set like a character, that's trouble."
"But I have reflect damage," Gray mist said, "the elite monster shouldn't be much stronger than a player, it should also be possible to reflect it to death."
"No, no, no, even if we can beat it, we shouldn't, because they might not be able to beat it," Greed shook his head and said, "If they can't, they'll have to trade their lives. We are just going to use the monsters to wear them out. And I haven't finished the job yet; if they're fighting the monster and you rush in, all the skills they cast can simultaneously hit themselves and the monster. By that time, they and the monster will both die, and all the treasure will be ours."
"This equipment is too strong," Gray mist said, "I feel like we're already invincible."
"Unlikely," Greed said, "this equipment is like your exclusive gear, but there can't be only your exclusive gear in this dungeon; others must also have theirs. When they get their exclusive gear, it will be as strong as yours, so later we need to scavenge as quickly as possible to reduce the risk of them getting exclusive gear."
The two were poised to strike, while chaos had already broken out on the other side because Bruce, coming from the other side, happened to first encounter the melee battlefield and decided to join in.
Now, four people were tangled in one fight. Natasha was stinging one person and then the next, Peter was swinging his fists at lightning speed, Tony pulled out his gun and then his shield, and Bruce sometimes was shrouded in black aura and sometimes glowing, while Lord Batman rolled from left to right and then from right to left.
Bruce's skills were also very unique. He had two forms, which he could switch between when not in combat. One was the "Son of Darkness" form of Barbados, primarily using dark energy to deal psyshock damage, targeting the blue bar; the other was the "Archangel" form wielding holy power, using a Holy Sword imbued with holy energy to deal physical damage.
And after using both forms once and accumulating the energy bar, he could activate the final form "Master of Light and Dark," distributing physical and psyshock damage based on the amount of damage previously inflicted in the two forms to cause massive mixed damage. In this state, he was invincible, immune to any attacks, though the duration was quite short, just a moment.
Entering the melee, it was clear some people's skill sets were suited for such situations, like Bruce. Whether it was using the dark energy beam attack or swinging the Holy Sword, all his skills had area damage, and his final form was like charging into the crowd and initiating a rampage.
It wasn't long before they couldn't handle him. The others chose to withdraw voluntarily, and when the damage was calculated, he naturally had the highest, so he also got a pass. However, he clearly had the same idea as Greed and didn't plan to go in immediately, intending to let others pave the way first.
Next most suited for melee was Peter. Despite his skills not having a large range or mixed damage, his attack frequency was incredibly high, filling the area with "Hey, look here, hey, look here, hey, look here, friendly neighbor coming, friendly neighbor coming, friendly neighbor coming, sorry buddy, sorry buddy, sorry buddy, sorry buddy, sorry buddy..."
The last line was especially infuriating. After painstakingly finding a good strategic position, he would grab an ankle and toss you to the edge of the field. Not only would you be getting hit while airborne, but you also had to hear that cheeky "Sorry, buddy!" The damage might be uncertain, but the blood pressure surely skyrocketed.
"The person who designed this line is a bloody genius!" Natasha helplessly held her forehead and said, "Bucky, quickly check if there's a mute button, I'm really fed up with this!"
"Unfortunately, there's not," Bucky said, "and we don't have much in the way of supplies left, so we better retreat for now."
"I feel like we're really not cut out for melee; we still need to do a sneak attack. On my way here, I saw two points unsearched, let's head directly there." Natasha said.
Natasha's group decided to forfeit. After she left the battlefield, Tony's team also withdrew. Although Tony's attack power was decent and he had area damage, he was too fragile. Without his Mecha, even a light touch left him with critical blood volume. In this situation, even obtaining a pass, he'd be killed on the way to loot the spaceship, better to search some small areas and gather more parts.
After he withdrew, only Lord Batman and Peter remained. One was adept at dodging, the other at high-frequency attacks — truly worthy opponents, a major showdown was about to erupt.