Had Enough Yet?

The moment she was caught by a "stranger," Gwen Stacy felt uncomfortable all over!

Without a second thought, she forcibly broke free from his embrace.

But just as she landed, she heard his teasing, lazy assessment...

Pathetically weak!

Those four words were like a heavy hammer smashing brutally into Gwen Stacy's young self-esteem.

Humiliating!

Utterly humiliating!

And yet, she couldn't refute it.

After all... her performance just now had truly been terrible.

Once she finally steadied herself, Gwen turned back to Peter and asked irritably:

"Y-you... who are you?!"

Facing Gwen's question, Peter hesitated for a moment before speaking in a deep, magnetic voice:

"You may call me... the 'Arbiter'!"

It was a title he had just come up with on the spot. In any case, it was far better than something like "Dock Butcher"...

After saying that, Peter suddenly tilted his head.

A Shockwave streaked past his cheek at just the right moment and struck the bank wall, blasting a huge crater into it.

Glancing at Shocker, who stood some distance away with fury written all over his face, Peter spoke to Gwen in a somewhat languid tone:

"Watch carefully, rookie."

"Let me show you what a real hero should do!"

"Shocker," Herman Schultz, was thoroughly enraged.

First, some bizarre girl in a black-and-white bodysuit had appeared out of nowhere.

And now, another guy in a black-and-red suit had popped up.

Since when had New York gotten so many cosplay enthusiasts?

Or did every single one of them think he was a pushover?

Did they really think Lord Shocker, the future king of bank robbers, had no pride?!

"Get the hell out of my way!"

Shocker roared, aiming his massive metal gauntlets at Peter and activating their energy again without hesitation.

Bzzzt—!

Another invisible Shockwave distorted the air, carrying destructive force as it blasted toward Peter in an instant!

"Watch out!"

Gwen instinctively wanted to warn him.

But before she could speak, Peter had already sidestepped and precisely dodged another Shockwave fired by Shocker.

Bang!

Another deafening crash rang out. The reinforced concrete pillar behind Peter instantly split with countless cracks, and dust filled the air.

What fast reflexes!

Gwen couldn't help marveling inwardly.

Shocker was even more stunned. As an ordinary person, he had not seen how Peter dodged at all!

"Bastard!"

Shocker cursed furiously, thrusting out both hands and madly unleashing Shockwaves in Peter's direction.

Bzzzt! Bzzzt! Bzzzt!

Invisible ripples of death ravaged the bank lobby, blasting the marble floor and counters into ruins.

Yet Peter, standing in the heart of the storm, remained as relaxed as if he were taking a leisurely stroll.

He weaved through the dense net of Shockwaves, every dodge perfectly timed, forming an incomparably stark contrast to Gwen's frantic flailing earlier.

"Had enough?"

After dodging another Shockwave, Peter had finally grown tired of the tedious evasion game.

He pushed off violently with his feet, shooting forward like an arrow loosed from its bow and appearing before Shocker in an instant!

Too fast!

Shocker saw only a blur as a black-and-red afterimage broke through his barrage!

He instinctively tried to retreat and put some distance between himself and Peter, but that was nothing more than wishful thinking.

Before Shocker could make a move, a hand clad in a black-and-red glove clamped around his throat like iron pincers.

The next second, a tremendous force struck him.

Shocker felt his feet leave the ground as the entire world spun around him.

Bang!

With a dull impact, Peter slammed him into the floor like a dead dog, giving his body an intimate encounter with the cold, hard marble.

Smashed heavily onto the ground, Shocker felt as if all his internal organs had been knocked out of place, while a metallic sweetness surged up his throat.

If not for the suit that could absorb kinetic energy, that man would probably have smashed him to death on the spot.

The instant he realized that, the instinct to survive overwhelmed everything else!

"Die!"

A flash of madness crossed Shocker's eyes. Without caring about anything else, he cranked both gauntlets to maximum power and unleashed his strongest vibration wave at Peter, who was right in front of him!

He had tested it at an abandoned construction site before. At maximum power, the vibration wave could even collapse an unfinished building in an instant!

Bzzzz—!!!

A violent, visible ripple of energy suddenly erupted from Shocker's body!

The terrifying blast instantly swept across the entire bank lobby!

The innocent employees and customers crouching on the ground in the distance with their heads covered were forced to bend over and vomit under the horrific vibration wave. Some even began bleeding from their noses and mouths before passing out on the spot.

Gwen was also driven back again and again by the aftershock, her chest feeling tight and stifling.

Her face filled with horror as she looked toward the very center of the impact.

That guy called the "Arbiter" had taken that point-blank, maximum-power attack head-on!

He was dead for sure!

Nearly the same thought flashed through Gwen and Shocker's minds at once.

However, reality gave them a resounding slap in the face.

Facing Shocker's highest-output attack, Peter's body merely swayed slightly, while the hand gripping Shocker's throat did not loosen in the slightest!

"H-how is that possible?!"

Shocker's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, his face filled with disbelief.

A maximum-power Shockwave capable of destroying an entire building had actually been endured head-on by a body of flesh and blood?!

Was this guy really human?!

What neither of them knew was that Peter had at least three layers of protection against Shocker.

First was chakra defense!

The instant he noticed Shocker's movement, Peter had controlled chakra to cover his body, making it rapidly vibrate to offset the vibration waves acting upon him, creating the first layer of cushioning.

Then came the superhuman physique enhanced by the Lizard Serum.

One had to know that in the original story, Lizard's strength and defense had both far surpassed Spider-Man's.

Spider-Man had fought Lizard twice, and both times he had only managed to win by using the serum to forcibly restore Lizard to human form.

Although Peter's Lizard Serum had lost the tail and full-body scales due to the Horse Talisman's cleansing effect, its other enhancements had not been weakened in the slightest. If anything, they had become even stronger.

Under those circumstances, using his flesh to withstand a Shockwave that had already been weakened once was naturally no problem.

Finally, and most importantly, there were the healing abilities of the Horse Talisman and the Lizard Serum.

The combination of those two regenerative abilities meant that the instant after Peter was injured by the Shockwave, he was immediately restored to full health.

The final result of those three layers of protection was that Peter easily withstood the maximum-power Shockwave without suffering a single injury!

"If you're done playing, then it's my turn!"

The instant those words fell, Peter, who was holding Shocker by the throat with one hand, lightly squeezed Shocker's hands with the other.

Crack~

After a series of bone-breaking sounds that made one's teeth ache, Peter had snapped every finger on Shocker's hands, and the continuously unleashed Shockwaves came to an abrupt halt...