The defining characteristics of Phage were its hardened defense and immense strength. Correspondingly, its speed was not fast. Therefore, Peter immediately decided on his battle strategy: he would use his invisibility and disappear completely.
Phage's own intelligence was not very high, but the host he had bonded with, Fitz, was extremely intelligent. He quickly determined Spider-Man's strategy, so Phage chose a counter-tactic. He slammed his giant fists into the ground, creating cracks and instantly filling the area with smoke. This would reveal the shape of an invisible person. At the same time, Phage stuck out his tongue and began to use his sense of taste to pinpoint Spider-Man's location in the smoke.
Here it comes.
A huge fist smashed backward, but it didn't hit Spider-Man. In shock, Phage looked and saw Spider-Man holding a thick warehouse door in front of him as a shield. Before Phage could react, a sonic emitter hit him in the head. Phage dissipated, and Peter pulled Fitz out. These three symbiotes were not immune to sound waves and high temperatures, so they were naturally easy to deal with.
The problem was Riot. Where had Riot gone?
Just as Peter was thinking this, a deep voice sounded behind him. Then, the dark gray symbiote finally appeared. He was perhaps the most Venom-like of all the symbiotes. At a glance, the two symbiotes looked identical except for their color. Riot also lacked the flashy abilities of the other three. In fact, he was the shortest, only a little over six feet tall, the same height as his host, Ward.
"You're really kind, Spider-Man. You were even thinking of saving people and didn't kill a single symbiote," Riot said. He controlled his viscous biomass to retrieve his two defeated brethren, threw them aside, and then walked over. Peter watched Riot silently. Then, without warning, he did a side flip, dodging Riot's shot.
It was a sonic attack.
"Fitz's little tech. He gave it to us," Riot said with a laugh, showing Peter the pistol in his hand. He then merged it with his arm. Then, Riot's arm fired a powerful sonic blast that destroyed a burning warehouse on the side. Peter understood Riot's hint and made Venom hide. Now, the enemy with anti-symbiote weapons was Riot, and the one who feared all of this was Venom. The tables had turned.
In the next moment, Peter disappeared from Riot's sight. Riot chuckled. Did he think the same trick would work on me? He had already prepared everything. He had assimilated S.H.I.E.L.D.'s infrared camera equipment. In the next moment, he saw Spider-Man.
Spider-Man was carrying Fitz and running out of the battlefield.
Riot was stunned for a moment, then he laughed. Just as Peter handed Fitz over to the medics, Riot walked out of the flames and headed straight for the street. Upon seeing this, Captain Stacy immediately ordered everyone to fire. Countless bullets rained down on Riot, who turned his left hand into a giant shield to block the bullets as he casually approached.
Captain Stacy continued firing while looking at Peter, who was standing motionless beside him. "Spider-Man, aren't you going to do something?"
"Actually, I was waiting, Captain."
"Waiting for what? Not for us to stop firing, right?"
The answer was revealed quickly. An iron suit in a red-and-gold color scheme landed in front of Peter and opened up. Peter walked into the suit, and after it was fully closed, he looked at the captain. "I was waiting for this."
With that, the bioelectricity in Peter's body went into full, even overloaded, operation. Combined with the arc reactor inside the Iron Spider suit, it launched five full-power white energy beams from the repulsor cannons in the hands and the tips of the three mechanical claws. They hit Riot's left-hand shield, directly melting it.
"You said you weren't afraid of fire? Perhaps, Riot, but that only applies to ordinary flames. The fire at a fire scene usually doesn't exceed a thousand degrees Celsius. Now, let's see if you can withstand a temperature of over six thousand degrees!"
The intensity of the five powerful beams exceeded Riot's expectations. He had not anticipated such a terrifying attack. Or rather, S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't know about the Iron Spider suit. It was precisely because of this that Peter wasn't afraid of Riot's presence. The four symbiotes were indeed powerful, and the Avengers were indeed not in New York right now. But their absence didn't mean that Peter's status as an Avenger was meaningless.
Riot, whose body surface was in immense pain from the burning, immediately chose a better way to resist. In his wailing, he chose to revert to Grant Ward's form. Peter stopped his attack as expected, letting Ward fall to the ground. Peter kept a lookout for Riot's next move while flipping Ward over and looking at him.
"Are you okay, Ward?"
"Spider-Man, you can't... you can't kill me!"
Huh? What did that have to do with anything?
Peter helped Ward up in confusion, completely baffled by what Ward was trying to say. But Ward had already shared Riot's memories and saw Riot's plan. "Riot's goal is to kill you, or to kill me. As long as either of us dies... Knull will be freed."
"What?"
Peter had never heard of this plot point. In the comics, Knull's resurrection was achieved after Dark Carnage collected a large number of codexes. How could he be resurrected by just killing one of them and absorbing one codex?
"Snap out of it and make more sense."
"Ah!!!"
Ward let out a classic Wilhelm scream. Peter turned and saw that it was Toxin, who had jumped into the sea, crawling back up. That's right, Peter hadn't freed Toxin's host in time, so he was still active. But even so, both Toxin and Riot should have realized that they were no match for him.
Wait... there's a "hybrid" symbiote in the comics!
As Ward was dragged back, Riot covered him again. At the same time, Phage and Lasher also covered him. Toxin also gave up his temporary host and joined them. After the four symbiotes merged, they finally formed a single red, monstrous humanoid creature. The viscous texture of the creature's body was even more obvious, and he was much taller. The tentacles extending from his back were not so much whips as they were more like... some kind of octopus tentacles—thick and looking like a part of the creature's body.
"Now your fire is useless, Spider-Man!"
Peter sighed helplessly.
"The boss just has to have a second phase, doesn't he?"