The moment she was caught by the "stranger," Gwen felt a wave of intense awkwardness wash over her!
Without a second thought, she forced herself out of his arms. But the instant her feet hit the ground, she heard his mocking, lazy critique...
A total disaster.
Those words felt like a heavy hammer smashing into Gwen's fragile teenage pride.
Humiliating! It was beyond humiliating!
The worst part was that she couldn't even talk back. After all... her performance just now had been genuinely abysmal.
Finally steadying herself, Gwen looked back at Peter and asked irritably, "And just who... who are you supposed to be?!"
Faced with Gwen's demand, Peter hesitated for a fraction of a second before speaking in a deep, magnetic voice:
"You can call me... 'The Arbiter'!
It was a title he'd come up with on the spot. At the very least, it sounded much better than "The Pier Butcher."
As soon as he finished speaking, Peter's head tilted slightly to the side.
A shockwave whistled past his cheek at that exact moment, slamming into the bank wall behind him and blasting a massive crater into the masonry.
Glancing at the fuming Shocker nearby, Peter turned back to Gwen and said with a drawl, "Watch closely, rookie."
"Let me show you how a real hero gets it done!"
Herman Schultz, a.k.a. Shocker, was officially livid.
First, a weird brat in a black-and-white bodysuit shows up. Now, some guy in black-and-red gear pops out of nowhere. Since when did New York have so many cosplay enthusiasts?
Did they all think he was a pushover? Did they think the Great Shocker—the future King of Bank Robbers—had no reputation to uphold?!
"Get the hell away from me!"
Shocker roared, leveling his massive metallic gauntlets at Peter and triggering the energy without hesitation.
VROOOOM—!
Another invisible shockwave warped the air, carrying destructive force straight at Peter!
"Watch out!" Gwen shouted instinctively.
But before the warning could leave her lips, Peter had already shifted. He sidestepped with surgical precision, letting the blast sail past him.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion echoed as the reinforced concrete pillar behind Peter cracked into a spiderweb of fissures, sending dust billowing into the air.
What insane reflexes! Gwen marveled internally.
Shocker was even more stunned. As a regular human behind the suit, he hadn't even seen how the man moved to avoid it!
"Bastard!"
Shocker cursed, thrusting both hands forward and frantically pouring vibration waves toward Peter's position.
Vroom! Vroom! Vroom!
Ripples of invisible death tore through the bank lobby, shredding marble floors and counters into splinters. Yet, at the center of the storm, Peter moved as if he were taking a casual stroll through a park.
His silhouette wove through the dense network of shockwaves, every dodge timed perfectly. It was a stark, humiliating contrast to Gwen's earlier frantic scrambling.
"Are you done playing?"
After dodging yet another blast, Peter grew bored of the game. He kicked off the floor with explosive power, launching himself like an arrow straight at Shocker!
Too fast!
Shocker's vision blurred. A black-and-red phantom had already bypassed his wall of fire! He instinctively tried to retreat to open the gap, but it was a fantasy.
Before Shocker could even twitch, a hand clad in a black-and-red glove clamped onto his throat like a steel vice.
A split second later, a tidal wave of force hit him. Shocker felt his feet leave the ground as the world began to spin.
THUD!
With a dull impact, Peter slammed him into the floor like a stray dog. Shocker's body made intimate, violent contact with the cold, hard marble.
The impact left Shocker feeling like his internal organs had swapped places. The coppery taste of blood rose in his throat. If he hadn't been wearing a suit designed to absorb kinetic energy, he probably would have been killed instantly.
In that moment, survival instinct overrode everything else!
"Die!"
A flash of madness crossed Shocker's eyes. He ignored all safety protocols and dialed his gauntlets to maximum output, releasing his strongest vibration blast directly into Peter at point-blank range!
He had tested this setting at a deserted construction site; the maximum yield was enough to level a derelict apartment building in seconds!
VROOOOOOOM—!!!
A visible, violent ripple of energy erupted with Shocker at the center! The terrifying impact washed over the entire lobby.
In the distance, innocent clerks and customers huddled on the floor began to double over and vomit from the sheer frequency of the vibration; some even fainted as blood leaked from their noses.
Even Gwen was forced back by the aftershock, her chest feeling tight and heavy. She looked toward the center of the blast with horror.
That guy, "The Arbiter," had taken a full-power, zero-distance hit!
He's dead! Both Gwen and Shocker thought simultaneously.
However, reality answered with a resounding slap to the face.
Against Shocker's maximum output, Peter's body merely swayed slightly. But the hand clamped around Shocker's throat didn't loosen by a single millimeter!
"How... how is that possible?!"
Shocker's eyes nearly bulged out of his head. His face was a mask of pure disbelief. A blast capable of bringing down a building had been shrugged off by a creature of flesh and blood?!
Is this guy even human?!
What they didn't know was that Peter had a triple-layered defense.
First: Chakra Defense. The moment he sensed the build-up, Peter coated his body in Chakra, oscillating the energy at high speeds to neutralize the incoming vibrations—creating the first buffer.
Second: Superhuman Physiology. Peter possessed the enhanced constitution from the Lizard Serum. In the original lore, the Lizard's physical strength and durability far exceeded Spider-Man's. Despite the Horse Talisman removing the tail and scales, the raw physical buff remained—and was even refined. Taking a weakened shockwave with his bare skin was well within his limits.
Third: Hyper-Regeneration. The combined healing factors of the Horse Talisman and the Lizard Serum meant that any micro-damage caused by the blast was healed the very instant it occurred.
The result of this triple-stack? Peter stood through a building-level blast completely unscathed!
"If you're done playing... It's my turn!"
The moment the words left his mouth, Peter—still holding Shocker's throat with one hand—reached down with the other and gave Shocker's hands a gentle squeeze.
CRACK—!
Following a sickening sound of snapping bone, Peter crushed every finger in Shocker's hands. The continuous output of the shockwaves cut off instantly...
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