Less than ten minutes.
An entire well-equipped modern American military force had been wiped out at Abomination's hands. Humans wailed, flames raged, and one corner of the once prosperous, peaceful city had become a living hell.
Abomination was like a monster that had crawled out of hell, born for slaughter. Thick blood seeped from the flattened car beneath its feet. It lowered its head to look at its tightly clenched fists, savoring the unparalleled superhuman strength of its current body, its face twisting into a crazed, satisfied grin.
"D-Don't kill me..."
The gun in his hand dropped to the ground with a crisp clatter. The only surviving American soldier stood before a ruined building, staring in terror at the comrades around him who had been torn apart in an instant. His spirit and fighting will seemed to have been utterly crushed at that moment, and his legs gave out, dropping him to his knees on the blood-soaked ground.
Along with them, the faith he had held his entire life had also been crushed.
That overwhelmingly terrifying display of power, beyond all common sense, made the American soldier wonder whether, if God truly existed in this world, even God might have been strangled to death by the unstoppable monster before him!
Abomination grinned savagely at the American soldier, with no intention of sparing him. It took a step forward, a step that heralded death itself, and the earth trembled and groaned beneath its footfall!
The American soldier remained kneeling motionlessly, his hands weakly braced against the ground as he waited for death.
Just as Abomination considered whether to crush the soldier alive in its hand or grind him into pulp beneath its foot, a graceful figure suddenly swept across the firelit night sky behind it.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Three consecutive strands of white webbing struck Abomination's bald head. Abomination reached back and grabbed at the back of its head, its palm becoming smeared with tough, sticky white silk. Its expression froze as it turned toward the damaged Bell Tower behind it. At its summit crouched a human girl clad in a black-and-white Spider Suit.
"Big guy, want to play with me?" Spider-Woman Gwen looked down at Abomination, curled a finger at it provocatively, then tugged her web line and swung away without hesitation.
"Roar!!"
Abomination threw back its head and roared. It no longer paid the American soldier any heed, kicking violently off the ground! As the roadway cracked and collapsed beneath it, Abomination shot down onto the top of the Bell Tower like a human missile! Without the slightest pause or buildup, it immediately leaped straight after Gwen as she swung away on her web line!
The American soldier stared blankly at it all until a young voice sounded beside him. "Hey, mister, shouldn't you take this chance to get out of here?"
The American soldier instinctively looked toward the voice, but all he saw was a flame-engulfed ruin. Where was anyone speaking to him?
Still, thanks to that, he finally snapped out of it. Struggling to his feet, he stumbled away from the horrific battlefield he would never forget for the rest of his life.
Inside a building beside the road whose residents had already safely evacuated, the Silver-Haired Boy stood behind a windowsill with a round shield on his back and a longsword in hand. Who else could it be but Xi Nian?
Xi Nian sighed softly. Even he did not understand why, after weighing the pros and cons and deciding to leave, he had suddenly followed Spider-Woman back into the city war zone where the military had been routed.
Somehow, he could not stop worrying about Spider-Woman, who had entered the war zone alone.
They had clearly only just met. She was merely a mysterious person with superhuman abilities!
"Whatever. I'm already here, so I'll take a look."
Xi Nian tightened his grip on the Retro Longsword in his left hand and leaped forward from the windowsill, landing atop a church thirty meters above the ground. Not far beside it stood the Bell Tower, now reduced to only a section of its structure after Abomination had smashed through it.
He crouched low and concealed himself, secretly observing the city ahead.
Spider-Woman apparently knew she could not confront Abomination head-on, so she kept swinging through deserted streets on her web lines. Her nimble, petite body darted deftly between high-rises, using windows and alleys barely large enough for her to pass through—
Even so.
Abomination stayed tightly on her tail. Rather than widening, the distance between them grew ever shorter!
Abomination did not care whether buildings stood in its way. It simply charged and leaped with brute force! Anything blocking its path was instantly smashed to dust by its green body!
Boom!!
It came crashing down like a human missile once more. This time, Abomination sailed over Spider-Woman's head and stomped a hole into the outer wall of the building in front of her.
Abomination clung to the outer wall by gripping a corner of the eaves, then reached its huge hand toward the passing Spider-Woman. At the critical moment, Spider-Woman promptly tugged the web line behind her and swung back. Her body narrowly brushed past Abomination's palm, and her white hood was shredded into scraps by no more than a graze from its green hand!
"Roar!!" Abomination grew even more enraged and continued pursuing Spider-Woman as she darted into an alley.
"That was close."
Even Xi Nian, watching from above, felt a chill run through him. But he also suddenly realized that Spider-Woman was far stronger than he had imagined!
Yet even if she kept fleeing like this, she could only buy a little time at most.
"No, she isn't just running away."
Xi Nian's eyes brightened as understanding dawned on him. He stared intently at Spider-Woman, who was deliberately luring Abomination toward the denser cluster of city buildings.
Crack, crack, crack—
The outer walls on both sides of the alley had been smashed with obvious damage. Abomination burst violently from the alley, covered in dust and grime. It watched Spider-Woman enter another long, narrow alley, veins bulging across its head and forehead in furious ridges.
Abomination roared like thunder and charged madly into the alley entrance, forcibly widening the entire alley to two or three times its original width!
But this time, when it burst from the other end of the alley in a rage, it was as though it had charged into a giant spider's nest—outside the alley, tightly woven white webbing covered every direction. The white strands were secured to the intact buildings packed together on all four sides. There were nearly a hundred of them at a glance, assembled into an enormous web trap in the area beyond the alley!
Abomination might not have fallen for it under normal circumstances, but consumed by rage and hatred now, it charged straight into the web trap.
"Now!"
Just as Xi Nian had judged from the church above, Spider-Woman clung to the tall wall of a building, rapidly flicking both wrists to shoot out webbing. The strands continuously wrapped around Abomination's head and limbs like iron chains, while their other ends were secured to the surrounding building walls.
About five seconds later.
Abomination had nearly been wrapped into a massive cocoon of webbing. Even its mouth and nose were sealed, leaving it completely bound together with the surrounding buildings!
"Impressive. I really underestimated her," Xi Nian could not help praising quietly as he watched from the shadows.
Having nearly exhausted all the webbing in her body, Spider-Woman finally let out a breath and sat exhausted against an outer wall high in the air.
Perhaps because no one was around, she pulled up the lower edge of her Spider-Man mask slightly, revealing the girl's delicate, lovely chin, her small mouth gasping for breath, and her high, petite nose.
"No way." Xi Nian suddenly shuddered from head to toe.
Although only half her face was visible, Spider-Woman looked very much like someone he knew!
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