"Softbody!"
[Softbody: A slime-like alien whose entire body is made of gooey mucus, like a living slime. Peace-loving, and a distant relative of the Goop species.]
[Appearance: A blue jelly-like creature, round and bald, with only two tiny black eyes, about one and a half meters tall.]
[Abilities: Can freely reshape its body at will, making it highly versatile. The slime covering its body can stick to enemies, and once attached, it weakens their strength. It also contains a bubble inside its body that can be used to store objects or trap enemies. Its capacity is enormous, enough to hold half a planet.]
[Enemies trapped inside the bubble cannot escape unless they possess space-time abilities, or are powerful enough to blow up an entire city in a single strike.]
[Note: The bubble is an independent space. Those inside it are not affected by the slime, but if they fail to come out within three hours, they will dissolve into nutrients for Softbody.]
[Weakness: It fears sealed environments, which make it feel uneasy and terrified.]
"It can change shape however it wants?"
Softbody froze for a moment, staring at its soft, squishy body.
Then, with a thought, two human arms grew from it.
Next came a pair of legs.
"Watch out!" Grandpa Max shouted.
In the blink of an eye, the savage Snare-Oh launched a kick from midair, driving it down at Softbody with unstoppable force.
Pop.
Softbody burst apart from the kick, exploding into countless splashes of blue liquid that sprayed in every direction.
In an instant, the smooth tiled floor was covered in piles of blue jelly-like goo, wriggling slightly.
After taking out Softbody, Snare-Oh twisted around, lashed out with a surge of bandages, and charged straight at Gwen.
Whoosh!
In an instant, all the blue jelly on the ground rushed in front of Gwen and merged into a tall figure.
Four arms, four eyes, a body made entirely of blue jelly, bulging with muscles. Its eerie green eyes were filled with cold killing intent.
This was Softbody's shapeshifting ability.
Facing the incoming wave of bandages, four-armed Softbody gave a cold snort, grabbed Snare-Oh's hands, and yanked it over.
Then he smashed it away with a punch.
Right after that, four-armed Softbody rapidly shifted again, turning into a thick python.
"Hiss!"
The blue python shot forward like a compressed spring, coiling around Snare-Oh in an instant and crushing it with all its strength.
Strength weakening.
Startled, Snare-Oh immediately split apart into bandages and broke free of the python's coils.
"Hey, freak, let me show you what a beating looks like!"
Diamondhead rushed over, clenched his hard crystal fist, and slammed it toward Snare-Oh.
With a single bandage, Snare-Oh tripped Diamondhead to the floor, then rushed for the iron gate without even looking back.
"Oh no, it's trying to escape!" Grandpa Max's eyes shifted.
"Who's in there?"
Right then, a security guard holding a flashlight opened the iron gate and walked straight in.
And ran headfirst into the vicious Snare-Oh.
Snare-Oh shot out its bandages and grabbed the guard by both hands, then opened its chest and revealed the Corrodium crystal inside.
Purple light instantly engulfed the guard's entire body.
Under Corrodium radiation, the guard mutated at an astonishing speed.
In just two seconds, he turned into a savage purple monster.
He still had a human shape, but his arms and legs had become sharper than scythes, his body had grown larger, and an eerie purple glow surrounded him.
Snare-Oh flung the mutated man at Grandpa Max.
At the critical moment, the blue python rushed over and transformed into a massive iron hammer along the way.
Bang.
One hammer blow knocked the mutated man unconscious on the spot.
Grandpa Max immediately stepped forward and tied him up tightly.
After knocking the mutant out, Softbody transformed again into "Four Arms."
But this time, its arms turned into blades. Like a Four Arms wielding four long swords, it slashed wildly.
Blue afterimages covered Snare-Oh from every direction.
In an instant, the savage Snare-Oh was cut into countless strips of white bandage that fluttered through the air.
With a thought, a black hole opened in Softbody's chest. A terrifying pull swallowed up every last bandage fragment.
"Cool! What's that move called?" Diamondhead ran over.
After thinking for a moment, Softbody said, "I'll call it... All Rivers Run to the Sea."
As long as Snare-Oh didn't get out within three hours, it would disappear completely and become nutrients for Softbody.
Unless it had space-time abilities, or enough raw power to destroy an entire city in a single blow.
But that was obviously impossible.
Of course, that didn't mean Softbody was invincible.
In the vast universe, there were still plenty of aliens that Softbody couldn't overpower, like Alien X, Atomix, Way Big, Big Chill, and others.
"Snare-Oh... just like that... died?" Gwen found it hard to believe.
That terrifying Snare-Oh had actually been swallowed by Cuz.
"Of course." Softbody smiled faintly.
With Snare-Oh's abilities, there was no way it could break through the space inside him.
Grandpa Max took off his protective suit, drew a deep breath, and smiled. "Alright, kids, time to head back and get some rest. We've still got work tomorrow morning."
"Grandpa!" Ben and Gwen said in unison.
"Alright, alright, I was just messing with you." Grandpa gave them a sly grin. "I've got a feeling traveling suits us better..."
"Awesome!"
"Grandpa rules!"
The two cheered excitedly and rushed over to kiss Grandpa on the cheek.
"But what about the rest of the Corrodium? If we leave it here, sooner or later it'll affect ordinary people," Ben said.
After all, those Corrodium crystals contained huge amounts of Corrodium and gave off intense radiation, easily causing mutation and deformity.
Just like nuclear radiation.
"Well... that is a bit troublesome." Grandpa Max looked worried. This wasn't the kind of thing that was easy to deal with.
But Lucian had already thought of a solution.
He transformed into Softbody and swallowed the huge crystal in front of him into his internal space.
Softbody's bubble could not only trap and dissolve enemies, it could also store objects.
It could be said that he ruled everything inside that space.
Whether something lived or died was entirely up to him.
Of course, that didn't apply to monsters with absurdly overwhelming power.
"That ability is amazing!" Grandpa Max said, giving a thumbs-up.
Then he made another detector and handed it to Lucian.
"Lucian, take this, turn into XLR8, find all the Corrodium, and lock it all inside Softbody."
"That way, Corrodium won't be able to harm Earth's living creatures."
Lucian nodded. He knew exactly how dangerous Corrodium was.
If nothing else, he was doing this for his own sake too.
If one day someone ambushed him, or Ben and the others, with a Corrodium crystal, that would be a huge problem.
Direct contact with Corrodium would turn someone into a monster almost instantly.
XLR8 was incredibly fast. It didn't take long to gather up all the Corrodium crystals in the surrounding area.
Then Lucian turned back into Softbody and devoured the purple stones in one sweep.
As for the mutant cows at the farm and the mutated security guard at Digby Dairy, Grandpa Max said that since they hadn't been exposed to Corrodium for long, they would gradually return to normal on their own after some time.
With that, the Snare-Oh incident came to an end.
Because Lucian had defeated Snare-Oh, he received a random hero treasure chest.
"Open," Lucian said silently to himself.
[Successfully opened Alien Hero Chest.]
[Unlocked new hero: Arctiguana!]