"The one who's finished should be you, Peter!"
At that moment, Otto Parker seemed to realize that the mechanical arms on his back were no longer helping him fight. They had become obstacles instead. He immediately hit a control button, and the arms detached on their own, yet still moved as if they had minds of their own, continuing to attack Peter.
Luckily, he had the foresight to leave himself a backup option when he modified them. It was basically the same as fighting with remote-controlled clones. The offensive power of the arms was not especially high, but it was enough to let Otto Parker break away.
"You don't seriously think this junk can hold me down, do you? Really? Really, Otto? Time for me to show you what real technique looks like!"
Peter crossed his two arm-blades, then burst forward in a flash. In the next instant, he launched into a rapid series of strikes, battering the detached arms with a nonstop barrage.
In barely five seconds, the mechanical arms had been completely shredded into twisted metal fragments that rained down toward the ground.
Then Peter fired off several webs in quick succession, each one using a difficult angle, and while Otto Parker was busy dodging, Peter silently closed the distance and slammed into him with a brutal flying kick.
Otto Parker clutched his aching chest and looked at Peter in shock.
"What kind of monster are you? How can your burst power be this high?!"
"You'll find out."
Peter let out a light laugh and shot another web line, rushing in again.
After taking over Spider-Man's body, Otto had spent his time both working out and researching the body's abilities, pushing its physical potential much farther than before.
But in the end, he had originally been a scientist, and a short, heavyset one at that. No matter how hard he trained, he could never develop the body's potential as thoroughly as Peter, who had been Peter Parker from the start.
On top of that, Peter not only knew how to fight, he also had perfect combat instincts. Even the smallest edge in a fight could decide the winner.
That was something Otto Parker simply did not have.
Whoosh.
Moving like the wind, Peter's fist appeared in front of Otto Parker's face in the blink of an eye.
Still clutching his chest, Otto Parker had no time to react and could only meet him head-on with fists and feet.
Bang, bang, bang...
Heavy impacts echoed through the web-covered floors, the two of them moving so fast that ordinary people could never have followed the exchange.
In the middle of that fight, Otto Parker could clearly feel the pressure Peter was putting on him through pure hand-to-hand combat.
Peter's attacks were efficient, ruthless, and precise. Every strike was vicious. His hands shifted constantly, fist to claw, claw to palm, palm to something else. The variety of moves, combined with his nearly flawless combat skill, made him impossible to handle.
Then, with one decisive shoulder throw, Peter hurled Otto Parker straight through a wall and out of the building.
"I'm truly sorry that your body had to take this much damage. It's my body too, in a way. But I don't have a choice. That's what fighting is. If you won't submit to me, then killing you becomes my only option."
Peter's tone carried a strange sort of regret.
"Don't push me."
Otto Parker looked irritated. Swinging out into midair on a web line, he fired a strange blood-colored strand of webbing from his wrist.
Pfft!
Peter's Spider-Sense screamed at him, and he instinctively cut off his pursuit. The blood-red web struck the ground beneath where he would have landed.
Ssssss...
Black smoke rose instantly. The hard concrete was eaten into irregular pits by the corrosive web.
"You're using that trick again? Why don't you teach me how to make that stuff? I'd love to spray it in someone's face during a fight. Sounds amazing."
Peter felt his scalp go numb when he saw the effect. Goosebumps rose all over his body, and he stopped pressing forward. Even so, looking at the part of the floor that had been eaten away, he could not help being fascinated.
Normally, corrosive compounds and web fluid should not mix cleanly at all.
Yet Otto Parker had managed to combine them perfectly.
That was incredible.
Right now Peter had paralyzing webbing, electric webbing, and organic webbing. If he added corrosive webbing too, who would ever be able to get close to him again?
"Peter, if I throw this slab down and it kills someone, are you going to save them?!"
Otto Parker sounded exhausted now, but he was gambling.
He was betting on the one flaw every Peter seemed to share: overflowing compassion.
In his own universe, he had exploited that exact weakness to kill Peter and claim the mantle of Spider-Man for himself.
He intended to try it again now.
But Peter simply folded his arms and looked at him as if waiting for him to hurry up and do it.
Because Peter was not a good person in the first place.
Could you really use morality to restrain someone who was not good to begin with?
"Tch. Hurry up and throw it. Then we can keep fighting."
"You can really stand there and watch someone die without doing anything?!"
"What does that have to do with me? Once I kill you, you won't be able to hurt anyone else anymore, right?"
Peter tilted his head, sounding as if that answer were perfectly obvious.
"I'm not one of those Peters you've met before, overflowing with compassion. I'm shameless. Whether those people live or die has nothing to do with me. I only care about reaching my goal. Sure, I can keep my principles and avoid becoming a complete villain, but if you think that makes me a good person, then you've got me all wrong."
"First, I'm not from this universe. Second, there's no rule anywhere that says Peter Parker has to protect people. Third, the ones who volunteer to be superheroes usually end up dying miserably."
"See? I gave you the perfect answer. Now hurry up and do it."
Peter looked so relaxed that he practically seemed ready to start picking his nose. At this point he almost wanted to flick the result straight into Otto Parker's mouth. This guy talked even more than most Peters.
"Fine! Then I don't mind ruining your reputation even more!!!"
Otto Parker hurled the slab downward, then started smashing at the wall around him, trying to shake loose even more rubble.
But just as the stones were about to crush people below, the Dutch kid, still in his nanotech suit, fired out web after web, flinging the falling debris away while shouting for the crowd to run.
The moment they realized their lives were in danger again, the people scattered immediately. No one even paused to keep filming.
"You knew that would happen?"
"Are you actually stupid or just pretending? There were two of us here. Why would I need to worry about something like that?"
"And even if he didn't show up, what does it matter to me whether those people live or die?"
"As long as I have no morality, you can't use morality to restrain me."
Then Peter vanished and reappeared right in front of Otto Parker. To stop him from firing more webs at close range, Peter moved first, blasting webbing straight into Otto Parker's web-shooters and clogging them shut.
If Otto Parker tried to fire now, the pressure would burst inside the mechanism and blow it apart in his own hand.
And Peter still was not done.
True to his rule of never leaving problems unresolved, he shot another web right over Otto Parker's eyes.
By the time Otto Parker tore the webbing off his face, Peter was already there, his arm fully drawn back.
"Good night, Otto."
"Wait, what do you mea—"
Duang!
Peter did not bother answering. He drove a vicious uppercut straight into Otto Parker's jaw.
The impact knocked him out cold on the spot.
That was with Peter holding back by a huge margin.
If he had gone all out, he probably could have blown the man's head off with one punch.
Thwip, thwip, thwip...
Seeing Otto Parker's limp body about to fall off the building, Peter quickly caught him in webbing. Then, being extremely considerate and apparently worried the man might get cold, he wrapped him in layer after layer of webbing until he looked like he was wearing a thick winter coat, bundled up like a perfect cocoon. Only then did Peter sling him over his shoulder and jump down from the building.
"Man, the two of you really wrecked the place."
The Dutch kid walked over and could not help complaining. Then he looked curiously at the unconscious Otto Parker hanging over Peter's shoulder.
"You knocked him out?"
"If I didn't, would the trip back be peaceful?"
"Come on. Let's take him back and lock him in that magic container."
Then the two Spider-Men cleared the crowd and swung away on their webs.
(End of Chapter)
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