I'd prepared quite thoroughly.
Right before meeting her, I'd gone to the abandoned school to set up a few things.
Well, nothing too fancy—just gunpowder, some chemicals, homemade high-tech traps, and a Morrigan fumo doll.
The Morrigan fumo was the most important one.
Once everything was ready, I messaged her. And on the day of the appointment, I'd already shot webs all over the abandoned school so she couldn't escape.
This was the only way I could "save" her—because prison would at least let her live for a while. (Using Paraquat doesn't exactly make you look merciful anymore, Peter.)
I might not be able to forgive her, but my feelings for her haven't faded, so this is the best I could do.
I don't think I'm brave enough to decide someone's fate.
'Wait, she has a voice in her head too? Is that you, Nya?'
[Hey, this has nothing to do with me!]
'No way that's just a coincidence!'
[Damn it! I'm telling the truth, but you never believe me—why?!]
'Because you're a better liar than Loki! You're Nyarlathotep, after all!'
[Yeah, fair enough.]
I then looked at Emma, who had tossed aside her shoes to use her toes to grab her meat cleaver.
I have to say, she's incredibly resilient. Even in a disadvantageous situation, she can still fight well.
But if you look closely, you can see the Paraquat is taking effect—her skin is starting to burn or even ulcerate.
Herbicide is really top-tier stuff. How come no one ever uses it for poisoning?
The cleaver from her foot sliced through all the surrounding webs while her left hand covered her nose.
And she threw the cleaver at me using her foot.
Of course, I dodged it incredibly eas—
BANG!
...I forgot—she has a gun.
I looked at my shirt, slightly torn thanks to my spider-sense, then at her.
She's using a Glock... with her teeth?!
Wait, what the hell?! She's pulling the trigger with her tongue??
BANG BANG BANG!
I dodged all the bullets and jumped down from the webs.
Paraquat doesn't affect me, so I'm fine. Emma doesn't know that, but I figure she'll realize it in a few minutes.
Suddenly, my spider-sense blared intensely.
"What?!"
I jerked my head to the side, and the meat cleaver sliced off a strand of my hair.
"How—oh, I get it. She's using physics and math too. After all, she's smarter than me academically."
Let me explain a bit: When she threw the cleaver, the handle must have hit something to ricochet back, and she must have calculated the angle to predict where it would land—so she forced me into the position where the cleaver would fly back.
'Holy shit, this fight is turning into an average JoJo battle!'
"You seem fine with the Paraquat exposure, huh? Poison resistance?" Emma broke free and charged at me.
She kicked hard at me with her foot, but I blocked it effortlessly.
Then she fired a few more shots. I dodged and landed a punch to her stomach.
She tossed the gun upward to block with her hand, then the gun fell back into her teeth, and she fired straight at me.
'Uh oh, she's adapting to the environment I created way too fast. I need to activate the traps.'
After dodging, I shot a web behind her—it hit the switch I'd placed there and yanked it hard.
Immediately, the student lockers swung open, revealing homemade nail guns that fired continuously at both of us.
I shot webs at her legs and kicked hard, sending her flying toward the nails.
She twisted her body, letting the nails graze past her.
"Don't think I don't know how to counter!" I then shot webs at the containers holding the nail guns and pulled them toward me.
They slammed straight into her, while I jumped up and yanked them sideways, dragging both the lockers and her along.
CRASH!
I pulled hard upward into the air, then slammed straight down into the ground, wrecking the lockers completely.
But she wasn't there.
"Up here~"
"!!"
I dodged her downward kick, and my spider-sense kept warning me about the follow-up attacks.
But the more I dodged, the worse I felt!
Because at first, the spider-sense was off a few times, then it started giving false alarms constantly—even when she wasn't attacking!
'Damn it! Has she figured out how to trick my spider-sense?!'
"Watching you dodge like that, I'm pretty sure you have something warning you in advance, right?" Emma smiled, this time throwing a punch.
This punch was very, very obvious, but my spider-sense didn't warn me at all. She's really learned how to counter it!
Or maybe... she'd already figured out how to counter it back in the cafeteria. If so, that's even scarier.
I blocked her punch, only for her to pull me close to her face.
"Wanna know why I'm obsessed with you?~"
"I don't want to hear it. One Gwen is already exhausting enough."
"Oh, if you're trying to win a girl's heart, don't bring up another girl!"
She headbutted me hard, smashing right into my forehead.
'So strong!'
My glasses fell off, blood poured from my forehead, and my vision got increasingly blurry.
Just as she was about to follow up, I jumped back a good distance.
"I still have plenty of traps left unactivated..."
I then punched a glass pane, shattering it into pieces, pressed the shards into my fist, and used webs to hold them in place.
Tearing off part of my sleeve, I tied it around my head to stop the blood from flowing down and obstructing my view.
'How many minutes do you think it'll take to finish her?'
[Idk, maybe 20? You look like you're at a disadvantage right now.]
'Heh...'
Looking at Emma approaching with the meat cleaver and the pistol in her mouth, I smiled.
'20 minutes is a bit short. I want to drag it out longer.'
[You're stalling for time until help arrives?]
'No, I want to handle her myself.'
'Beating her until tomorrow is my planned timeline—because I'm going to activate all the traps.'
[...Everyone else tries to finish someone off as fast as possible, even killing them quick, but you choose the long way? Trying to be like Spider-Man from other universes or something?]
'You wouldn't understand. Since she's my friend, I'll give her the ultimate treatment: torture.'
[...wait what—]
"UAGHHHH!!!!" I stomped hard on the ground, and immediately, rats dropped from the ceiling onto her side.
"?" She looked confused at the rats, wondering what I was planning.
As soon as one rat entered her line of sight, a punch smashed into it, causing it to explode—flesh and blood splattering straight into her eyes.
"!!"
She closed her eyes to shield them, only for a punch reinforced with glass shards to slam into her stomach.
The glass shards shattered, but her stomach started bleeding.
"Come on! I'm not done yet, EMMA!!" I roared, preparing for round 2!