Doctor Lizard struggled desperately, but layer upon layer of webbing wrapped around him, leaving him unable to break free for the time being.
Hanging from a strand of webbing, Peter slowly lowered himself upside down until he was above Doctor Lizard.
"Doctor Connors?"
He tried to awaken the part of Doctor Lizard that still possessed human conscience.
"Roar!"
But all he got in response was a rather unfriendly roar.
To keep Doctor Lizard from suffocating, Peter had deliberately left his nose and mouth uncovered for breathing.
Seeing this, Peter raised a hand and fired two more strands of webbing with a whoosh, sealing Doctor Lizard's mouth as well.
He left only those two large nostrils for him to breathe through.
"Sorry, Doctor. I was originally planning to leave your mouth uncovered too, but you're too noisy. And your breath smells awful. Does the Lizard Serum cause bad breath too? I wouldn't recommend using it if it does. That's just disgusting. Or maybe you should carry a toothbrush around and brush your teeth. What flavor of toothpaste do you like? Mint?"
With nothing better to do, Peter launched a merciless barrage of trash talk at Doctor Lizard.
Doctor Lizard heard every word and grew more irritated by the second, but with his mouth sealed shut, he had no way to vent. He was practically dying of frustration.
Peter did not care about that.
He did not think everything he said was meaningless nonsense.
While talking, he could ease some of his own tension and distract his opponent—but his senses were so sharp that if he did not deliberately divert some of his own attention, he would be distracted instead.
Besides that, he was also using certain interrogation techniques while speaking. By observing changes in the other party's expression, movements, and so on, he could gather information he wanted.
Rip!
At that moment, a tearing sound suddenly came from Doctor Lizard's body.
A gap suddenly opened in the webbing that had tightly wrapped him up.
Peter froze slightly, unable to understand how Doctor Lizard had done it.
Then, in that instant, Doctor Lizard, who had been waiting for this chance, violently tore open the webbing and flipped himself upright.
Only then did Peter notice a long severed lizard tail lying on the ground.
Then he looked at Doctor Lizard's bare backside and suddenly understood.
He had actually sacrificed his tail to survive!
There were certain break points in a lizard's tail.
In nature, when a lizard was attacked, it could, in an emergency, contract and squeeze its tail muscles to detach its tail. The severed tail still contained nerves and could continue moving for a while, drawing the enemy's attention while the lizard escaped.
Peter just had not expected that Doctor Lizard, this artificially created giant lizard, possessed such an ability too!
His entire body had originally been wrapped in Peter's webbing, but after he severed his tail, the shape of his body changed at the tail end, disrupting some of the previously tight structure.
Doctor Lizard seized that instant of change, breaking free by using a single point to rupture the whole binding!
What a calculation!
Doctor Lizard clearly could not have carried out such actions while mindless, which meant...
"Doctor Connors?" Peter nimbly dodged Doctor Lizard's attack and called out tentatively.
"Spider." Doctor Lizard stopped attacking. Standing on the floor of the passageway, he looked up at Peter while tearing away the remaining webbing on his body.
"Doctor, you're awake?" Peter was somewhat delighted. Up until now, he had believed Doctor Lizard had become so aggressive because of the serum's effects.
After all, both he and Gwen had met the doctor himself before. He was a good man.
"Ah, Spider. It seems you are an existence like me," Doctor Lizard said as he examined Peter.
Hearing him speak normally and sensing that the frenzy around Doctor Lizard had lessened considerably, Peter could not help but feel more at ease.
Still, he neither came down nor moved farther away. He simply found the curved junction between the ceiling and the floor and pressed his back against the wall.
"Doctor Connors, how did you become like this? Can you turn back?" Peter asked.
"You know me?" Doctor Lizard asked in return.
"Of course. You're one of the foremost figures in cross-species genetic biology and a renowned researcher at the Osborn Group. Anyone who knows even a little about this field should recognize you, right?"
Peter responded calmly. He was not about to let Doctor Lizard trick information out of him.
Doctor Lizard's two eyes stared fixedly at Peter, seemingly trying to see through the mask and uncover his true identity.
"Osborn? Heh!" Doctor Lizard sneered. "Don't mention Osborn to me! If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have become like this—no, I should thank Osborn. They made me what I am today, the perfect me!"
Peter's brows furrowed slightly. He felt that perhaps he had reached his conclusion too soon.
Doctor Lizard's mental state was obviously still not quite right.
"Little Spider, for the sake of us both being great biological evolutionaries, I won't hold the past against you. From now on, you can keep playing house, while I go fulfill my great mission!" Doctor Lizard said, turning toward another passageway.
"A great mission?" Peter sensed that something was increasingly wrong. His Spider-Sense began pounding violently again. "Sorry, but may I ask what exactly this great mission of yours is?"
Without looking back, Doctor Lizard said, "I will turn New York into a lizard island and have everyone join this glorious evolution!"
"Uh... are you possessed by Viktor or something?" Peter was left speechless. Doctor Lizard's words reminded him of the Three-Handed guy from a certain game.
Doctor Lizard had clearly never played that game and did not understand Peter's jab. "Viktor? You mean that guy from Europa?"
"Huh?" Peter froze briefly, falling from the wall as he fired webbing from both hands, sticking it to Doctor Lizard's wrists. "I don't know who you're talking about, but Doctor, I can't let you turn people into Lizard-Men!"
Peter yanked Doctor Lizard back, but the immense strength made him unable to move even a step.
Doctor Lizard turned and roared, "Spider-bug, why are you stopping me? I'm benefiting everyone!"
"Benefiting everyone? But they don't want it themselves!" Peter wrapped the webbing twice around his hands and pulled with all his strength. "Besides, if everyone around you turned into giant lizards with bad breath, wow, how could anyone live like that?"
"Then I'll kill you!" Doctor Lizard suddenly spun around and charged at Peter.
The sudden shift from resisting to being pulled caught Peter off guard. His body stumbled backward again and again until he slammed into the wall.
Doctor Lizard threw a punch.
Peter hurriedly dodged, then sprang onto the upper part of the pipe and ran down along it.
The two connected strands of webbing had unknowingly looped around Doctor Lizard.
Before you continue