Chapter 118 Spider and Bat (Part 2)_1

In the Parker household, in Peter's room, Peter was gripping the door frame tightly, saying, "Let go of me! This is my body! I can use it as I wish! I want to go out and date Gwen..."

Then he glanced at his watch and said, "Please! It's already 10 pm and we have to meet by the river at 10:30 pm. We can still make it now, I can't fail her. She has just encountered such a great danger yesterday, she must really need comfort..."

"But you haven't even completed a decent combat plan!! You've been dawdling here for three hours!! You've only done a third!! You must complete it before you can go out to play!!"

"Are you crazy?! Even school teachers wouldn't expect anyone to do homework for three hours!! I'm leaving right now! Let go of me!"

Peter's arm alternately relaxes and tightens, as if he's having a tug of war with himself. In the end, Venom roars, "You're 16! Only two more years to 18! The 18-year-olds I used to know, were much more diligent and disciplined than you!"

"You're lying! My peers are just like me, we are normal! There can't be any high school students who are keeping themselves locked in the room doing assignments, can there?? Let me go now! I'm really going to be late!"

Twenty minutes later, Peter lands on a rooftop and warns Venom in his mind, "When I meet Gwen later, you're not allowed to peep."

"Have you even held her hand?" Venom asked.

"Of course we have held hands..."

"Just holding hands, right?"

Peter's face turned a bit red and he said, "So what? We have only been in a relationship for a few months, and there haven't even been 100 dates..."

A little while later, at a coffee shop by the river, Gwen had already ordered two cups of coffee. She was very happy to see Peter who also ran to her excitedly. He said, "I'm sorry, I'm a little late today, there was...a bit of traffic on the road."

"It's okay, I came too early. I've already ordered the coffee, let's go sit over there."

Just as Peter received the coffee cup, he felt his body suddenly out of control, then he opened his arms and held Gwen tightly. Surprised, Gwen pulled away, to which Peter awkwardly responded: "Oh, sorry! I... I was just..."

He then noticed Gwen's tearful eyes. Gwen asked, "Did you see the newspaper? The incident that took place on the street next to our school yesterday?"

Peter who was at the scene of course knew about it. He then said: "Uh... yes, I saw. It seemed you were there too..."

Before Peter could continue, Gwen's eyes welled up with tears as she said, "You don't know how dangerous it was yesterday. I saw a young policeman make the ultimate sacrifice with my own eyes. I simply couldn't accept it..."

"Hug her."

"That's crossing the line, how can you control me..."

"Listen to me, hug her."

Peter felt his body lose control again, he held onto Gwen with all his might. Gwen too, held onto him and started crying, her body trembling, with Peter just patting her back.

After a good while, Gwen finally calmed down. She wiped her tears with a napkin, saying, "I'm sorry, I couldn't control myself, but..."

She choked a little and said, "My dad is already under a lot of pressure, I don't even dare to show that I'm scared in front of him. I'm afraid it would worry him and cause him to lose focus and get into danger on the job..."

Looking at Gwen's sad and worried face, Peter felt terrible. He was almost speechless and felt his arm grasp Gwen's hand holding the coffee cup involuntarily. Venom's voice echoed in Peter's mind, "Aren't you going to say something?"

"What should I say? I... this, this is abrupt..."

"You are really the most cowardly human I've met."

In the end, Peter gathered up his courage and looked into Gwen's eyes, saying, "Don't worry, I've always been by your side…"

After speaking, like a hand off a hot stove, Peter quickly retracted his hand and took a sip of his coffee.

Gwen looked at his slightly flushed face, and burst into laughter, "You're different today."

Feeling frustrated, Peter thought, "This is all your fault, Gwen will think I am unreasonable."

He then heard Gwen say, "But I actually think it's not bad, you were a little too shy before. I really didn't expect you to be so proactive..."

Peter's face turned even redder, and he stammered a little, "No…nothing, it's the...the least I could do..."

"You're hopeless," Venom's voice echoed in his mind once again.

Gwen broke into laughter, nearly chocked by her coffee, as she seemingly enjoyed seeing Peter's shy and flustered demeanor.

"Let's go to the cinema later, the usual one we go to. I've got a coupon for a large cheese ball bucket, it would be just right for us to use."

After the two left the coffee shop, Peter said to Gwen, "Sorry, wait here for me, I'm going to the convenience store."

He ran to the nearest convenience store, picked up a bag of chocolate balls from the shelf and then paid for them.

Gwen saw him coming out of the store and looked at the bag of chocolate balls in Peter's hand, "Why do you suddenly buy these? I don't remember you liking chocolates?"

Peter tore open the wrapper, then took one out and gave it to Gwen, shrugging, "I just thought eating sweets might cheer you up a bit."

Gwen was pleased as she put her hand on Peter's shoulder, "It seems you've really changed a lot, my friends used to say you didn't know how to please girls, but now it seems you're not bad at all."

Peter blushed a little, then he also took one out and peeled off the wrapper, popping it into his mouth.

"Oh, shit, why does this taste so bad?" Venom's voice rang out.

"Then why did you ask me to buy it?"

Peter chewed and said, "I think it's pretty good, isn't this what all chocolate tastes like?"

"You ignorant boy, this chocolate is surprisingly awful, true enough, you can't expect much from something cheap." Venom said.

By the time they got to the movie theater, Peter received a cheese ball tub almost half his height from the concession stand clerk; Gwen apologized somewhat, "I didn't think it would be this big when I was ordering. It didn't seem that large in the pictures..."

Peter struggled a bit to hold the big tub and said, "It's fine. You know, my appetite has grown a lot recently, I think we should be able to finish it."

As the movie started, the two chose a spot in the middle of the back row. Peter wedged the giant tub of cheese balls between the armrest and the back of the seat in front of them, so it was right in between them and easy to reach.

After the movie started playing, they both ate cheese balls and drank cola whilst quietly discussing the plot.

Just as Gwen reached for a cheese ball, she saw a black tentacle quickly scooping up seven or eight cheese balls from the tub. She rubbed her eyes in astonishment, exclaiming, "What was that???"

"What?" Peter turned his head to look at her. By the time Gwen looked again, the tentacle had disappeared; because there were so many cheese balls, it was not noticeable that a few were missing. Gwen blinked her eyes and said, "Never mind, I might have just had a hallucination."

Then Peter heard Venom complaining in his mind, "This isn't tasty either. It has that cheap taste of snack food."

"Why are you so picky?" Peter said, "Aren't these pretty tasty?" As he said this, he grabbed a handful of five or six cheese balls and tossed them into his mouth.

By the end of the movie, Gwen looked at the now empty tub in astonishment, "I know your appetite has grown a lot, but this is a bit excessive, isn't it? There were enough cheese balls here for ten people!"

In Peter's mind, Venom burped, "Although it's not that delicious, it's still quite satisfying."

After sending Gwen home and seeing that Peter still planned to hang around outside, Venom said, "Could you go home and finish that goddamn battle plan already?"

"For god's sake! Spare me! I don't need any battle plan!" Peter squatted on a rooftop, pulled the Spider-Man suit out of his backpack and put it on, then said, "We'll just wear this suit, and take down that base, simple."

"You're going to get your ass kicked," Venom said.

Half an hour later, Peter was running in terror down a small alley, a black fog encased him, slowing his movements. Shortly after, a pair of talons swiped at his back. A patch of black goo blocked the attack, and Peter swung around to punch, but his opponent vanished in an instant.

Before he could even turn around, another vampire teleported right in front of him, clawing at his face. Peter ducked to dodge it but another bat was already diving at him.

"Damn it, I've walked right into their trap. They were all waiting for me." Peter glanced around, he was being surrounded by at least four or five advanced vampires.

This kind of enemy was Peter's kryptonite. Although he had great strength and spider sense, he didn't have any good way to counter magic.

Even though his strengths included powerful punches and speed, they were useless if he couldn't reach his target. He didn't have wings and couldn't pursue if the opponent turned into a bat and ascended.

On the contrary, these vampires could take turns harassing him. One was responsible for the main attack, while the others interfered from the sides. Peter was seriously slowed down by them.

"Listen, if you can't solve this problem within ten minutes, I'm going to step in," Venom said.

"Step in? Can you even fight? Why not now? Can't you..." Peter tumbled again on the ground, avoiding an attack, then shouted, "…help me right now?!"

"This is the consequence of not planning ahead!!! And also, do you think I don't want to help you? Do you know the level of havoc that I would cause?"

Just as he spoke, those advanced vampires seemed to be tired of pestering him. They pushed Peter into a corner and launched an all-out attack on him from all sides. Very soon, his suit bore several slashes. A few more hits and it might have torn apart.

"Alright, clear your mind now, I'm going to step in…" Venom said.

Just then, a gun shot rang out. One of the advanced vampires screamed as smoke started coming out of his body. A black man in a leather jacket and an eye patch sprung over the wall from the alley.

He slashed at another vampire, and wherever his blade touched the vampire's body, smoke appeared. The vampire tried to turn into a bat and escape, but another slash cut off his wings. He flopped onto the ground a couple of times before a silver wedge pierced his heart.

The man wielding the knife was a Blade Warrior, a half-vampire who was also a vampire hunter. He had been tracking this group of advanced vampires for several months, and they had gathered today, providing an opportunity to wipe them out all at once.

Blade's predictions were correct. Within a few skirmishes, he had wounded and killed several vampires. However, he was so focused on attacking the vampires that he failed to notice the person they had surrounded. By the time he did, he saw a figure rise amidst a burst of black goo in the middle of the crowd.

In the mass of black goo, a huge monster with wings on its back emerged mid-air, displaying a bat symbol on its chest.

Blade looked up to see a giant black bat with wings spanning several meters, almost blotting out the sky, appear above New York.