Gwen swore she had never heard that name before.
It sounded like the title of one of those eccentric sculptures she often saw in museums—bizarre and seemingly pregnant with hidden meaning. Sculptors were always fond of giving weird titles to their works, names like *The Thinker* or *The Watcher*.
Exhaling, Gwen shook the stray thoughts from her mind and stared straight at her opponent.
"All right, Blackwatch, hands up right now, and get ready to enjoy prison life!"
The moment the words left her lips, Gwen whipped up her right arm and fired Webbing at Peter.
The web-shooter aimed straight for Peter's face.
Faced with Gwen's unsportsmanlike ambush, Peter reacted in a split second. Inheriting combat experience from his past life, his physical body enhanced by the Blacklight Virus and reinforced after absorbing a portion of Jimmy's flesh and blood, his physical stats far exceeded those of an ordinary person.
He sidestepped to the left to dodge.
The instant his feet hit the ground, he slammed them down hard. With a loud *bang*, the pavement cracked and caved in.
Instantly leaping five or six meters into the air, Peter launched a counterattack from above.
Gwen was taken aback by his exaggerated leaping ability. But she quickly recovered. Faced with Peter's lightning-fast punch, her spider-sense activated, and she swiftly crossed her arms to block, using the rebound force to execute a backflip and land steadily on her feet.
Landing as lightly as a spider, she braced one hand against the ground while her other wrist fired a strand of Webbing that anchored onto a nearby streetlamp.
"Hraah!"
Gwen roared, pulling hard on the Webbing and using the taut line to propel her body forward.
*Whoosh!*
Gwen was launched like a baseball, her body hurtling forward as straight as a spear. Her right leg drove straight toward Peter, who had no time to dodge.
Faced with Gwen's thunderous strike, the thick black substance on Peter's skin immediately began to writhe.
Like twitching octopus tentacles, the matter shifted across his arm in the blink of an eye, transforming his right hand into a black shield.
One of the characteristics of the Blacklight Virus was that cellular fission allowed for localized shape mutation, such as gigantism, elongation, twisting, and more. In the world of Prototype, the most common manifestation was for the infected to morph their hands into claws, hammerfists, tentacles, blade arms, or shields capable of withstanding bazookas and other heavy weaponry.
As someone intimately familiar with the properties of the Blacklight Virus, Peter naturally wielded it with ease.
*Bang!*
Gwen's right foot slammed hard into Peter's shield.
The impact of muscle against the hard shield produced a harsh, cracking noise. Driven by the mutual recoil, Gwen bounced backward.
She adjusted her posture in mid-air and landed swiftly.
As for Peter, the impact sent him hurtling backward.
*Boom!*
Peter's back slammed violently against the wall with a deafening crash. The wall fractured inch by inch under the impact, sending dust fluttering down in clouds.
Leaning against the wall, Peter felt his blood churning.
In a pure test of strength, his newly virus-infected self was simply no match for spider-strength, which could effortlessly toss tons of weight. Frowning, a thought crossed his mind. He dissolved the shield form on his arm, pressed both palms flat against the wall, and leaped upward.
His body moved rapidly up the vertical surface.
Down below, Gwen stared in shock at Peter rapidly scaling the wall.
This guy... could climb walls just like her? And he climbed even faster than she did!
You... are you also Spider-Man?!
Slightly shaken, Gwen forced herself back to a calm state. She let out a breath, fired a Webbing line, and began climbing the wall in swift pursuit.
As she rounded a blind corner, a strand of black Webbing suddenly shot toward her.
Gwen was startled and flipped backward to dodge. Though she barely managed to avoid it, Peter suddenly appeared before her, wreathed in a dark reddish-black aura, and launched an attack.
Cellular mutation extended from Peter's wrist. A long, black, strip-like substance resembling Gwen's Webbing sliced through the air with a piercing screech.
To fend off Peter's assault, Gwen continued dodging backward, only to accidentally flip right off the edge of the wall.
Her supreme sense of balance allowed her to land safely on her feet.
Upon landing, Gwen prepared to counterattack this hateful bastard once more. She felt this guy was growing more and more like her—he could even shoot web-like strands from his wrist just like she did!
Just who on earth was he?
As Gwen was trying to guess his identity, the hairs on the back of her neck suddenly stood on end.
An extreme sense of danger washed over her!
Her spider-sense was blaring an alarm.
Without a moment's hesitation, she spun around.
The sight that met her eyes caused even Gwen's remarkably resilient mind to reel with dizziness.
Jimmy, who had already died, was staggering back to his feet. Fresh blood gushed from his body, and the mangled gap in his chest revealed a horrific, gruesome wound.
Blood continuously leaked from his facial orifices as Jimmy walked toward her step by step, his bones letting out a harsh, grinding *crunch*.
Terrified by the sight, Gwen couldn't help taking a step back.
The next second, a torrent of blood spewed from within Jimmy's body as countless worm-like, reddish-black entities burst forth, writhing across his skin.
His facial features severely distorted and covered in blood, Jimmy lunged directly at the frozen Gwen.
The foul, rancid stench was strong enough to penetrate her mask.
Panicking, Gwen immediately reached out to fire her Webbing at him.
*Click!*
Instead of shooting webbing, however, the web-shooter emitted a crisp metallic clatter.
Gwen's heart skipped a beat!
Oh no!
The web-shooter was broken!
Gwen instantly plunged into deep despair.
Why did it have to fail today of all days?
Aahhh!
She screamed frantically in her mind.
The nozzle of the launcher was clogged with dirt!
I've been stupid enough not to clean the nozzle for a whole month!
Even as Gwen was furiously beating herself up inside, the "zombified" Jimmy had already lunged right in front of her.
*Bang!*
The next second, a sudden and drastic change occurred—Jimmy's head exploded.
Like a watermelon struck by massive external force, it was instantly pulverized. Blood splattered across the sky like a hail of bullets raining down in all directions.
Gwen's spider-sense finally performed to perfection, causing her to leap backward just before the spray of blood could reach her.
*Thud!*
Jimmy's headless corpse collapsed heavily onto the ground. The writhing matter on his skin quickly receded back into his body.
The stench of blood and foulness filled the air, quickly permeating the entire alley.
Peter, who had solved the "zombified" Jimmy with a single strike, appeared from behind the corpse.
The "Black Spider" mask concealed his face, making it impossible for Gwen to read his expression at the moment.
After casting a glance at Gwen, Peter turned and walked away.
He needed to dispose of the body, but not in front of her. So he intended to leave first, lure Gwen away, and then return to handle it.
"Wait...!"
Gwen recovered from the visual feast of the head explosion and called out.