Lizardmen Killed the Moment They Show Their Heads

The hideous Lizard.
The Spider-Man hanging behind.
And...
Gwen, looking completely dumbfounded.

Before Hawk had time to think, the moment he pulled Gwen over, a thought seemed to strike him. He pulled her hard against him, wrapped his arms around her, and spun around on the spot, exposing his own back to the Lizard.

Bang!

The Lizard's sharp claws slammed into Hawk's back like a falling boulder, driving Hawk straight down the stairs.

Hawk spun in mid-air once more, his back crashing into a bookshelf below.

The bookshelf shattered.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye. Once the other people recovered their senses and saw this scene, they screamed in terror and fled out of the library.

"Hawk!"

The Lizard, its throat rumbling like a true monster stepping down the stairs, stared at Hawk as he picked himself up from the floor. "Blood, give it to me!"

Well.

It came for me.

Aside from his clothes being somewhat disheveled and covered in dust, Hawk—who felt virtually nothing from the Lizard's attack—muttered inwardly upon hearing those words. Then, he instinctively looked over at Gwen, who was also recovering from the shock. "Are you alright?"

Only, he felt somewhat curious.

If the Lizard had come for him, why did its previous attack look so much like it was aimed directly at Gwen?

And it wasn't an illusion.

It was pure instinct. If the Lizard had really been aiming for him, let alone hitting him, if it could have even grazed him, it would mean his two and a half years of relentless training had gone to waste.

Just a moment ago, Hawk had intended to grab Gwen and leave instantly at supersonic speed.

Right as he was about to do it, a series of consequences flashed through his mind.

For instance...

Gwen would be unable to withstand the sudden acceleration force, causing her entire body to feel as though it were being crushed by an invisible giant hand.

Or perhaps...

The deadly air resistance would literally tear her body apart.

After all, he could move at supersonic speeds and his body could handle it, but Gwen couldn't. That was why he had changed his mind in a split second and chose to absorb the Lizard's blow instead.

So this had nothing to do with not wanting to expose himself in front of his classmates.

He wasn't afraid of exposure, nor did he care about it.

As for any notion of playing the pig to eat the tiger, that was completely out of the question.

Even when he robbed Quantico, the most he did was wear a hoodie and a medical mask; he didn't even wear gloves. If Quantico had seriously investigated the matter, they actually could have found him.

After all, when he scouted the location during the day, he hadn't made any effort to conceal his identity. A casual check and some dynamic facial comparison would have been enough to match him.

To sum it up in one sentence:

If he wasn't afraid of exposing himself to the military, let alone here.

Hawk simply didn't want Gwen to get hurt.

At this moment, Gwen, also snapping out of her horror, instinctively shook her head and said she was fine, then her eyes suddenly constricted.

"Watch out!"

"Boom!"

Hawk threw a punch, the force of his blow striking the desk the Lizard had hurled with its tail, shattering the desk into pieces in mid-air.

"Get out of here first."

"Be careful, its strength is absurd."

Peter, currently clinging to the wall like a real spider, called out in warning.

To be precise, it was absurdly exaggerated.

If the Lizard's strength had been 1 back on the Williamsburg Bridge, then the Lizard's strength now was a 3.

Fortunately, he was a spider-man himself, and his healing factor was equally exaggerated.

Knowing that Hawk was strong, but having never actually seen Hawk fight, Peter couldn't help calling out a warning when he realized Hawk intended to step into the fray.

Of course.

Peter's voice right now still sounded slightly different from his real voice—it was noticeably deeper.

This made Gwen shoot a subconscious glance in that direction, but she quickly nodded at Hawk.

"Then be careful."

"Alright."

Hawk smiled gently.

Gwen then turned around, intending to find a safe zone.

Yet the moment Gwen turned to flee, the Lizard's pupils constricted. It kicked off the ground, soaring through the air like a flying reptile, and lunged toward Gwen once more.

"Holy shit!"

"You're courting death!"

The first exclamation came from Peter. Seeing this, Peter used his hands and feet to stick to the wall, shooting out two webs simultaneously with a loud snap. The webs caught the airborne Lizard, halting its mid-air charge toward Gwen for a split second.

The second sentence came from Hawk.

When Hawk saw the Lizard trying to kill Gwen right in front of him, his voice turned icy cold.

The next second.

Bang!

Accompanied by a sonic boom, Hawk vanished from where he stood. In the blink of an eye, he appeared in mid-air right in front of the Lizard, pressing a casual fist against its chest.

Crack!

The Lizard's chest collapsed on impact, instantly exposing its mutated, beating heart. The next moment, its body flew backward like a kite with a broken string, howling as it shot away.

Peter flew backward along with it.

His two webs were still stuck to the Lizard's back, so when Hawk punched the creature away, Peter was dragged along by the momentum, shrieking as he flew backward with it.

Fortunately, Peter reacted in time, severing the two web lines, executing a mid-air somersault, and attaching all four limbs to the library ceiling to dissipate the force.

The Lizard wasn't nearly as lucky.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Flying backward all the way, the Lizard smashed straight through a row of second-floor bookshelves. Amidst the continuous crashing sounds of collapsing shelves, its back slammed into the second-floor wall, instantly spiderwebbing the surface and halting its retreat.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye.

The moment Hawk blasted the Lizard away, he materialized beside Gwen. "Are you alright, Gwen?"

Gwen shook her head in a daze.

Her mind was still replaying the horrifying image of the flying Lizard lunging at her.

Dr. Connors wanted to kill her?

Why?

It made no sense at all.

Peter had already dropped from the ceiling onto the second-floor floorboards, where a row of bookshelves was destroyed and the ground cracked by the thrashing of the Lizard's tail. That was when he caught sight of the Lizard's miserable state.

At a glance.

The Lizard's chest was completely caved in, and debris was embedded all over its exposed, mutated heart.

The mutated heart was still beating, albeit slower and slower, and the green hue on the Lizard's body was gradually fading.

A single strike!

The Lizard was on the verge of death!