Riot had perfectly learned from Carlton what it meant to weigh pros and cons, and what constituted a necessary sacrifice.
Therefore, upon realizing that staying with Carlton would only make him weaker until he died at the hands of that unknown companion...
He decisively "sacrificed" Carlton and threw himself into Cletus's embrace.
"Aaaaaah—!"
In an instant, screams rang out across the scene.
Mac Gargan, The Punishers Killer Brothers, and Cletus were all letting out bursts of screams due to the Symbiote invasion.
As for Carlton... this guy was screaming purely from pain.
A large hole had already been punched through his chest by Peter, and now Riot's departure made his fragile body even worse.
Carlton was now regretful, deeply regretful.
If he hadn't been deluded by Riot, how could he have ended up in this state... but unfortunately, there is no medicine for regret in this world.
He was destined to pay for his mistakes with death.
Almost at the same moment Carlton died from the pain, three brand-new Symbiote monsters appeared before Peter.
Yellow, codenamed "Phage."
Red, codenamed "Shriek."
Green, codenamed "Lasher."
Shortly after the birth of the three Symbiotes, Riot also let out a frenzied laugh after merging with Cletus, the former host of "Carnage":
"Hahaha! New power! This is the real me!"
Riot pointed a finger at Peter and looked at the other three Symbiotes, ordering:
"Attack together. After we finish him, I'll slowly explain what happened to you."
Phage, Shriek, and Lasher were already full of hostility toward Peter because they had witnessed Venom's tragic death.
After inheriting the personalities of the three villains, they became even more arrogant and bellicose.
Thus, the four Symbiotes immediately formed an alliance and, without a second thought, surrounded Peter, preparing to defeat and devour him!
Riot transformed his hands into large axes and swung them at Peter.
Phage opened his bloody maw and spat out highly corrosive acid!
Shriek whipped her disheveled hair, turning it into strands of rope in an attempt to bind Peter's limbs.
Lasher transformed his arms into two long whips, making sharp cracking sounds!
Facing the siege of four Symbiotes at once, even the Hulk in his normal state would be whipped around like a spinning top.
But facing such an encirclement, Peter only curled his lips contemptuously:
"If you're doing this so I can feel slightly less guilty when I sacrifice you later... then you've certainly succeeded!"
After leaving behind such a taunt, Peter's figure vanished instantly.
The three newly-born Symbiotes were momentarily stunned by this strange situation.
Only Riot was the first to react:
"Above us!"
As he spoke, he tried to jump up and slash at Peter.
However... Moonwalk!
In mid-air, Peter twisted his body strangely and accelerated a second time, instantly bypassing Riot's form and flashing in front of Phage.
With one punch, Phage was sent flying on the spot, leaving the younger killer brother, Henry, inside with a hole identical to Carlton's.
If not for Phage's timely repair, he would have repeated Carlton's fate then and there.
After taking out Phage, Shriek's hair happened to wrap around Peter's wrist.
Seeing that she had bound the enemy, Shriek wanted to use her strength to pull Peter over and finish him off.
In response, Peter just gave a disdainful smile:
"Get over here!"
With a slight exert of force from his arm, Shriek flew up with a terrified expression.
Not only did she happen to help Peter take a hit from Lasher's whip, but she was subsequently slapped across the face by Peter, the violent force making her spin several times in place from the pain.
This was only possible because a Symbiote could repair injuries; otherwise, this single slap alone would have sent Mac Gargan's mouthful of rotten teeth flying.
At that moment, Riot landed from the air, his axe-transformed arm smashing down fiercely toward Peter.
Peter instinctively raised his right hand, his arm transforming into a sharp blade the moment he lifted it.
The blade sliced diagonally across the axe's edge, shearing off the entire axe blade along with a piece of Cletus's scalp.
Simultaneously, he raised his left hand and shot out a strand of webbing, sticking it right onto the incoming whip from Lasher.
With a bit of force, Peter swung Lasher around like a windmill, sending him crashing into Riot, and the two tumbled together like rolling gourds.
"Trash is trash; even with a new host, you're still trash!"
The battlefield fell into an eerie silence because of Peter's commentary.
One against four.
After one round, the opponent was completely unharmed, while all four of them had sustained significant injuries.
Was this reasonable?
For a moment, Mac Gargan's trio and their Symbiotes felt like they were questioning their existence.
Only Riot was different.
Cletus, whom he was possessing, was a psychopath who didn't know the meaning of fear.
"Cough, cough... Interesting, truly interesting..."
Riot shot out something similar to webbing, controlling the detached parts of his body to return to him, then pushed off the Lasher pressing down on him and stood up shakily from the ruins.
He looked somewhat miserable at this time, but his eyes became more excited than ever before:
"Your fighting style... I've learned it!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Riot charged at Peter once more.
His movements were no longer as broad and sweeping as before, instead gaining a hint of agility.
At the same time, Peter noticed that his speed seemed to have increased slightly.
Although his speed still couldn't match Peter's, there was indeed a visible improvement.
Seeing Riot charge again, the other three Symbiotes glanced at each other and also crowded forward regardless of the consequences.
Minutes and seconds passed.
During this process, the combat experience of Riot's group of four clearly improved significantly, and their coordination became more and more seamless.
Initially, the four of them couldn't even touch the corner of Peter's clothes, but later on, they were actually able to find gaps and touch Peter a few times.
Peter originally wanted to circle around with them for a few more rounds to see what level they could eventually evolve to.
But after sending Riot flying once again, his body strangely began to glow with a red light.
After the red light flashed, the Symbiote suit on Peter's body vanished into thin air, instantly reverting him to his human appearance.
This sudden change caused Riot and the others to be stunned at first, and then their faces each showed expressions of wild joy.
They thought their "kin" had finally reached its limit and couldn't hold on anymore.
Little did they know... what awaited them next was true despair.
"Tsk... the transformation time is up~"
Only then did Peter recall that the original little broken watch was designed with a time protection device to protect the host's DNA.
Transforming into a single form for more than ten minutes would result in a forced exit, requiring a few minutes of cooling down before it could be used again.
"I wanted to play with you guys a bit longer, but since conditions don't allow it, I can only... send you on your way immediately."
As he spoke, Peter reached out and pressed the witch rider driver that appeared out of thin air at his waist:
"Henshin!"
"Flame, Please~!"
Hearing this, Riot originally wanted to mock Peter for overestimating himself.
But in the next second, he saw a Rider suit appear on Peter's body out of thin air.
The suddenly appearing suit wasn't the main point.
The point was... after putting on that suit, raging flames actually ignited on this guy's hands and feet... The moment they saw those flames, the four Symbiotes felt their scalps go numb.
Oh no, this guy is a cheater!