"Peter!"
Bang! The Lizard's immense strength made it almost impossible for Gwen to get a handle on it! Peter swung his claws, and the concrete and steel in front of him crumbled like tofu, revealing the rebar that was almost bent into a right angle!
"Hiss——!"
The reptilian eyes fixed on the white figure in the darkness, a mix of reason and primal instinct swirling together.
No one knew what it saw; it just kept swinging—this strange scene was like a lizard trying to catch a butterfly! The strange part was—how could a lizard catch a butterfly?
Gwen dodged a claw strike and fell to the ground as the Lizard barreled through like a tank, easily smashing through walls and crushing everything in its path! Gwen's eyes widened—
How could this be? How could this happen? Even in battle, too many incomprehensible things flashed through her mind, only to be interrupted again by her spider sense—
Taking advantage of her moment of daze, the thick tail struck her chest hard! Bang! She had tried to dodge, but the dark environment made it hard to see the Lizard's tail. Or rather, in the darkness, her vision and senses haven't adapted yet!
The spiked tail ripped through her clothes, leaving a shallow scratch. Facing the powerful Lizard, Gwen felt helpless—
If she didn't know this was Peter, she would use everything around her to restrain the beast, but this was her best friend!
How could she be sure she wouldn't make a mistake? After all, it was a person, not a real monster!
"Peter! You have to come to your senses! I—"
Whoosh! In the darkness, Gwen heard the sound of wind and then saw the tail coming down hard at her!
She couldn't see anything, only able to jump up suddenly to avoid it, but in that jump, she realized the Lizard was also coming at her!
Bang——! The claws slammed into her chest, pinning her against the wall, the immense force making it hard for her to breathe—
"Cough——"
At this moment, the Lizard seemed to quiet down a bit, its yellow eyes staring intently at Gwen.
But the force in its hands didn't lessen! Gwen kicked the Lizard's knee hard, but it was almost ineffective—
She could only quietly shoot out a web to stick to the precariously hanging concrete block above:
"Peter——you need to come to your senses!"
Bang! With a tug of her wrist, the massive concrete block fell from the air, causing the Lizard to stagger and Gwen took the opportunity to free herself! "Hiss!!"
The terrifying roar grew more furious, the human side of it gradually losing out in the fight!
After a successful hit, Gwen felt even more troubled—she couldn't take it down like this?! And it was so dark here. What should she do? Facing the approaching Lizard, Gwen once again planned to dodge—
Ding! Suddenly, intense light streamed through the damaged wall, and the spotlight almost turned the room into daylight!
The Lizard was momentarily disoriented by the strong light, its whole movement becoming distorted—
Gwen leaped up, looking from above, and saw her father, George! George was carrying some kind of signal equipment on his shoulder, holding the spotlight outside the room with one hand while directing the police behind him to keep their distance and evacuate and rescue the civilians in the safe areas.
Gwen was stunned! "Dad?!"
George didn't hear Gwen's exclamation and turned around, shouting loudly: "Be careful!!!"
Gwen's instinct kicked in again. This time, she instinctively jumped and spread out in the air, narrowly avoiding the Lizard's pounce! George, holding the light, sighed in relief and said to Leo next to him: "Leo? Have you got it under control? It looks like Spider-Woman is struggling!"
"Turn up the volume on your radio, I need to talk to her!"
"Zzz——" The radio's volume suddenly increased. "Spider-Woman, I'm the technical support for this operation. You need to follow my instructions to weaken the Lizard and slow down its movements."
"Huh?" Gwen swung up to the second floor, looking through the smashed wooden boards, and saw the Lizard turning around and charging back.
Perhaps because of the light, Gwen felt more confident as she hid—
Clearly, at this stage, she still couldn't rely entirely on that sudden flash of crisis reaction; the dark environment made her even more constrained.
"Who are you? Technical support?" Gwen was still wondering what was going on when she suddenly remembered that someone had indeed called George at home, which was how she learned the Lizard was Peter.
"Alright. What should I do?"
"First, hit him hard—what did you use to hit him earlier? It worked well."
Boom! The Lizard leaped up suddenly, smashing a beam with one claw. The second-floor floor seemed to be on the verge of collapsing, and a huge concrete block fell—probably weighing about ten tons.
Gwen dodged the attack and kicked the Lizard on the head, knocking it down.
"That's about the weight of the rock, falling from the second floor! Oh my, why is his head so hard!"
"Very good—keep doing that. Do you see the place near the broken beams upstairs?"
Gwen frowned, but Leo had anticipated her question and continued explaining: "while the lizard serum greatly enhances the body's recovery ability in the short term, but severe damage will quickly deplete its effectiveness, causing the DNA methylation to speed up causing the abnormal traits cause by the serum to fade away!
He also has monitoring equipment on him, so I can check his status! Just hurry up!"
After hearing this, Gwen's frown relaxed. She looked at the approaching Lizard and jumped down from the second floor to dodge the attack.
Then she raised her hands, shooting webs upward, and as the Lizard pounced again, she yanked her hands and rose rapidly! The Lizard missed its target! Gwen's agility was clearly far superior to Peter's. Now, with a solid plan and the environment becoming brighter, the Lizard couldn't touch her at all!
Above, a concrete block that had already been fractured came crashing down under Gwen's pull! Bang! A ten-ton concrete block fell from a height of seven meters onto the Lizard's head, with additional debris falling.
Even a tank couldn't withstand this.
Although the Lizard wasn't an ordinary carbon-based creature, it was still struggling.
The blunt force would penetrate the keratin scales, reaching the subcutaneous cells, crushing a lot of tissue, thereby stimulating the recovery ability.
After multiple cell divisions, the time for DNA methylation would be accelerated, consuming the cutting proteins in the serum to maintain DNA activation status—
Peter had only administered a single dose of the lizard serum to himself, not much.
Once the serum's effectiveness ended, the Lizard transformation would enter the decline phase.
"Hiss!!!"
The Lizard's golden slit pupils began to fill with blood, seemingly signaling that Peter had completely lost his rationality! Leo watched the rapidly rising hormone levels, frowning as the data changes began to look increasingly familiar.
"What happening? Was it not enough?"
"Not enough—do it again! See the hole in the wall? Hit it there again. There are a few rebar pieces on the ground. While he's dazed, use the rebar to block the gap. Do it a few more times."
"Do you think I'm Superman?!"
"Are you an ordinary person?"
Gwen had no response. She jumped to the rooftop, kicked the wall hard, creating a large crack, and then shot out webbing to cover it. The Lizard went into a frenzied state, and Gwen landed on the edge of the wall, yanking hard as the Lizard charged at her! This time, a concrete block fell from an even higher place, almost three floors high. After Gwen pulled the webbing, she jumped up to avoid the pounce!
The Lizard missed its target and performed a drifting turn to brace itself against the wall, trying to regain strength, but Gwen quickly shot out webbing to stick to its feet! Bang! The muffled sound was deafening, the concrete block cracked open on the Lizard's head, and the scales showed cracks!
Gwen quickly picked up a piece of rebar from the ground. Just as she was about to bind it to the hole, she heard Leo again: "Give him another hit!"
Gwen immediately threw the rebar, hitting the Lizard's head again! These two blows really rattled Peter's brain, making him shake his head as he lay on the spot—Gwen used this time to secure the rebar in place over the hole.
But there was still a significant gap.
Gwen secured the rebar and reinforced it with webbing, sealing off a large portion of the hole, leaving only a few small gaps.
"What's this for?"
"Look at his condition."
Gwen looked at the Lizard and noticed that its size seemed to have decreased somewhat—the spines on its back were not as pronounced.
This was useful! Leo continued: "The beast's instincts will make it flee after taking a certain level of damage. This is a trap to lure it in and then use your webbing to control it."
"Got it—do we need to do it a few more times?"
"Just one more time, you do it yourself, and aim for his chin if possible."
"Alright. Peter, you've really caused me trouble this time."
Gwen stood in place, watching the recovered Lizard, and bounced on the spot like a boxer—
Although she had just become Spider-Woman.
Her strength was still considerable; ordinary people might overlook it, but Leo did not.
This final strike should be enough to completely nullify the drug's effects. Without the drug, the Lizard's DNA would enter the complete methylation phase.
From this stage, excessive damage could leave Peter incredibly wounded, potentially causing him to die instantly if his DNA fully methylates and he reverts to a human.
A single kick should be just right.
The Lizard, regaining consciousness, mustered its remaining strength and charged again—
Gwen timed her move perfectly, performing a nimble backflip to dodge the attack and then, as the beast's attack, seeing a flaw, she didn't flip back but bent sharply, gathering strength—
At that moment, Leo saw an extremely unusual scene—
As the methylation deepened, the abnormal blood indicators in the Lizard's body rapidly worsened, with a massive hormone release! It lightly tapped the ground to stop its forward lean, causing Gwen's kick to miss, and then it flicked Gwen away with its tail! This abnormal increase in physical ability—was remarkably similar to the changes seen in cyberpsychosis. The Lizard turned and sprinted toward the hole, just as Leo had predicted; it was trying to escape!
Its sudden burst of energy caught Gwen off guard. Now, the steel rebar and webbing connection were insufficient to stop the Lizard! The Lizard charged straight at the gap. Given its size, it was indeed too large to fit through.
But that thing would only hold it back for a second!
Leo had no choice but to bring out the anti-serum—
"Leo, what are you doing!"
George hadn't reacted yet when he saw Leo running over, almost simultaneously—he could barely keep up with the speed that an ordinary person couldn't match!
The Lizard and Leo arrived at the wall almost simultaneously, with the Lizard completely oblivious to Leo.
As it raised its hand to dismantle the temporary blockade, it saw Leo insert his hand through the gap in the webbing, injecting the syringe directly into the abdominal injection port!
The first injection port was in the chest, just able to penetrate the webbing! However, in its enhanced state, the Lizard's speed, though not equal to Leo's, was still fast enough—
Leo managed to push only half of the anti-serum in when the giant claws came swinging, forcing him to dodge!
The dosage was insufficient!
Leo pulled back, and the Lizard roared in pain, abandoning the attempt to climb out of the building and instead quickly climbed back inside! Its size was rapidly decreasing, and its speed was slowing, but it remained very agile, moving quickly through the ruins and debris! The awakened Gwen saw this scene and immediately got up, only to be trapped by the steel rebar and rubble—
At a critical moment, she was stuck!
Leo couldn't afford to hold back any longer. He squeezed through the gap in the webbing and pursued Peter closely—
If he couldn't catch him now, the consequences would be uncontrollable!
So Gwen witnessed a miraculous scene—
She saw Leo zip in and then maneuver between the chaotic ceiling and walls in a way very similar to hers—
This was a very complex terrain, and Leo's movements were not as fast as hers, but to an ordinary person, they were impressive!
At this moment, Leo's right arm had switched to magnetic gloves, providing enough grip, though not as strong as the full version.
His left hand used a web-shooter to provide pulling force, with one hand on the web and the other against the wall, moving rapidly through the narrow and winding ruins! This scene left Gwen in awe!
Although Leo's movements didn't seem significantly stronger than an ordinary person's, his technique was strikingly similar to hers!
And very fast! The movements appeared effortless!
Just as Peter was about to run out of the room, Leo shot out a web to stick him and then kicked down the almost reverted Peter.
The first injection port was blocked by a broken needle, so Leo took out the second dose of the anti-serum and injected it into the injection port near Peter's spine.
As the anti-serum was administered, all the Lizard DNA began methylating and then shedding from the methylation state, and Peter gradually returned to normal.
But as he reverted, Leo began to undergo some lizard-like changes himself; his arms grew increasingly muscular, and the claws had damaged the prosthetic doctor gloves and magnetic components—
This caused Gwen, facing Leo, to be alarmed: She thought he was one of her kind, but he turned out to be a "kind" of Peter?!
Gwen tentatively asked: "Uh, Mr. Lizard? I seem to be stuck, could you help me? Did Peter have an adverse reaction for joining your group?"
Before she could finish her sentence, a nearby pillar fell down! Bang! Gwen saw that the "Mr. Lizard" had turned more lizard-like; before the pillar fell, a green, lizard-like arm pushed it aside, and then it removed the steel rebar and concrete block from her.
As she struggled to crawl out, the golden slit pupils fixed on her: "Let's discuss this outside. Remember to keep this confidential."
With that, Leo injected himself with the antidote.
Gwen nodded in a daze—
What a day this has been?