“Your pumpkin bombs are all used up, and I think I’m feeling pretty confident now,” Xia Luo said, tugging on the webbing as Norman, wrapped up like a cocoon, tumbled across the ground. Suddenly, from his arm gauntlets, Norman launched a barrage of Goblin blades.
Thwip thwip thwip!
In an instant, the webbing was sliced apart, and the spinning blades tore through the massive web, filling the narrow alley with their sharp edges.
“Gahahaha, kid, you’ve underestimated the cunning of the Goblin!” Norman rose to his feet, tapping his gauntlet to remotely control the blades, locking them onto Xia Luo.
Thwip thwip!
The sharp projectiles quickly severed Xia Luo’s webbing, limiting his ability to dodge effectively.
As the blades ricocheted toward him, Xia Luo’s nanotech suit flared with sparks but managed to withstand the assault, much to his relief.
Immediately, his eyes glowed blue, and with the help of his suit’s AI, Xia Luo tracked the movement of the flying blades.
Muscles tensing, he delivered precise punches, shattering the incoming blades one by one, leaving nothing but broken scraps of metal at his feet.
“What?!” Norman gasped. But before he could react, the red-and-blue figure zipped forward with a web-assisted lunge.
“Wait! I’m not ready—”
BAM!
Xia Luo’s perfect right hook, powered by a solid ten tons of force, sent Norman crashing into the wall with a loud boom.
The rubble crumbled around him, and as Norman tried to pull his head out of the hole in the wall, Xia Luo grabbed him by the head and slammed it into the brickwork repeatedly.
Thud thud thud!
“No, stop! I’m dizzy…” Norman wailed between the impacts.
Without the assistance of his tech, Norman found himself at a disadvantage in terms of raw strength. If it weren’t for the helmet’s protection, his head would have already split open.
“Oh? Well, I should be considerate of an elderly man’s feelings then,” Xia Luo grinned, slapping off Norman’s helmet and grabbing a handful of gravel, rubbing it into Norman’s face.
“I’ll put some dirt in your eye,” Xia Luo said with a smirk.
“Dammit! Stop it! I am the most terrifying demon! You can’t do this to me!”
Three minutes later, Norman sat slumped against the wall, bloodied and exhausted, his expression one of utter defeat.
“How… how could this happen…?”
After enduring such brutal treatment, Norman’s eyes glazed over in confusion.
“It hurts so much… Xia Luo… what did I just do?” Norman suddenly snapped out of it, looking at Xia Luo with wide eyes.
“Kid, I’m sorry, really… I didn’t mean to. That wasn’t me. I never wanted to become this monster. I just wanted to work with you. I never truly intended to hurt your family. You have to believe me,” Norman said, sobbing, remembering how he had threatened Xia Luo’s family.
Xia Luo dusted off his hands. “I’m sorry too, but it’s hard to forgive you for that. Is there any way to control your condition?” he asked.
Norman, head hung low, wept bitterly. “There’s no way… I can’t control it. I’ve made too many mistakes, and I can’t turn back now.”
“So, kid, if you want to stop me, the only way is to…”
“Die!” Norman suddenly roared, his face twisting into a snarl. At that moment, Xia Luo’s spider-sense jolted him, sending a chill down his spine.
The danger wasn’t coming from Norman—it was from behind!
Norman had an accomplice?
“What are you waiting for? Kill him!”
Shing~
Norman launched a surprise attack, deploying a blade from his gauntlet. Xia Luo spun in mid-air, narrowly dodging the sharp edge and flipping over Norman’s head, landing gracefully behind him.
The fluidity of his movement was flawless.
Anyone who had worked with Spider-Man knew that acrobatic spins like that were a reflex, not something that required practice.
Shing!
But then, in a sudden twist, hot blood splattered across Xia Luo’s face, blurring his vision.
He saw a flash of steel tear through Norman’s back, ripping through his armor, leaving a gory hole in his flesh.
“What…?”
Xia Luo had dodged Norman’s attack, but now Norman had been fatally struck by this so-called “accomplice.”
It was bitterly ironic.
Boom!
Thunder rumbled through the night sky as rain began to fall, dripping into the narrow alley.
The mysterious figure slowly withdrew its claws from Norman’s body, and blood mixed with rainwater poured out onto the ground. Norman turned slowly, blood gushing from his mouth.
The madness in his eyes faded as if he welcomed this release.
He smiled, but there was sadness in it, then fear and uncertainty.
“Kid… don’t… don’t tell Harry… and don’t be Spider-Man anymore… run!”
With a final, agonized shout, Norman threw something to Xia Luo, then charged at the shadowy figure in the darkness.
Rip!
The sound of armor tearing echoed through the alley as blood splattered everywhere.
Heavy rain poured down, and the dark silhouette, like a beast from the flood, stood menacingly over Norman.
[You defeated a supervillain. Restart opportunities +9.]
“Shhhhhhhh~~”
The rainwater dripped off Xia Luo’s nanotech suit as he fired webs, swinging rapidly between buildings, his heart pounding.
He wasn’t afraid of dying, but the spider-sense amplified his fear of death, compelling him to flee the scene without hesitation.
Who was the person that killed Norman?
The spider-sense’s intense reaction to this individual meant that they were incredibly dangerous—someone far beyond Xia Luo’s ability to handle.
It seemed Norman had known who this person was, and had warned Xia Luo to stay away.
This was no random event.
The realization made Xia Luo’s skin crawl.
The Marvel Universe was far more dangerous than he’d imagined—so dangerous that he couldn’t even guess who his real enemies were.
His thoughts raced, and his body felt drained. His wrist couldn’t produce more webs.
“Uh oh.”
The sensation of weightlessness hit him, and Xia Luo’s expression froze as he plummeted from the sky, seemingly resigned to his fate.
He had exhausted too much of his web fluid, and his body was no longer able to produce more web protein, weakening him significantly.
As expected, after a few seconds of free fall, Xia Luo crashed into a nearby balcony.
“Mother of—who keeps a giant snake on their balcony!” he cursed.
The balcony’s owner, hearing the commotion, opened the door, beaming at the sight of Xia Luo tangled in a massive python.
“Oh, it’s Spider-Man!”
“Yeah, it’s me, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man,” Xia Luo replied, wrestling with the snake. He pried the snake off his body and noticed the pizza in the man’s hand.
“Hey, Jack, is that your dinner?”
He tossed the python aside and casually took the pizza from the man’s hand, greeting him with a wave before digging in.
“No, I’m not Jack, my name is—” the man started to explain.
“Right, Jack, have a good night,” Xia Luo interrupted, walking off with the pizza in hand.
“Mmm, beef, my favorite.”
“Wait, that’s the bathroom, the door is on the left,” the man called, confused.
“Thanks, Jack, say hi to Rose for me.”
As Xia Luo left, a woman came out of the bedroom, glaring at the man. “Who’s Rose?”
The man shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Jason, you’ve been exposed.”
“Wait, let me explain—”
In the hallway, Xia Luo scratched his head as he listened to the argument inside.
“Strange, do people really fight about having Spider-Man in their house?”
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