Marvel's Shendu: Dominating the Multiverse

Chapter 173 Peter Parker vs. Doctor Octopus

Parker moved.

The spider silk shot towards the power lines of the second set of electromagnets, precisely entangled with them. As he pulled back, he shifted his body sideways, using himself to shield Octavius ​​from the edge of the bridge.

The wire snapped, and sparks flew in and out of the connection point, landing on the asphalt road.

Octavius ​​stared at the broken power cord, his expression unchanged.

"Option C has variations," Parker said. "Unplug your power first, then we'll talk."

"You've improved," Octavius ​​said.

Then he took something out of his coat and pressed it.

The truck's rear door was blown open from the inside.

Four robotic arms.

These were versions Parker had never seen in any of the materials. Twice as thick as the prototypes in the lab, the hydraulic structure at the joints was replaced with electromagnetic actuation, and the three-pronged claws at the ends became four fingers—human-like four fingers, each capable of independent rotation. They extended from the truck, unfolding in the air, the metal joints moving with minimal noise and excellent lubrication.

All four arms simultaneously turn toward Octavius.

Parker's spider-sense went maxed out in that instant. Not a danger warning for himself, but something else—a physiological reaction to witnessing an irreversible event. He saw Octavius ​​take off his coat and turn around. Mid-spine, that spot, there was a metallic sheen beneath the shirt. An interface. Already installed.

The bases of the four robotic arms are aligned with the four ports on his back, accurate to the millimeter.

"PhD!"

Click.

Four sounds, simultaneously. Electromagnetic lock. Robotic arm connects to the spine.

Octavius's body stiffened abruptly, his toes lifting about two centimeters off the ground as he was supported from behind by four arms. This lasted for three seconds. Then he landed back on the ground, his breathing returning to normal, and his shoulders relaxed.

Four robotic arms slowly extended behind him, their four fingers at the ends making a test fist-clenching motion. The synchronization was extremely high. It was indistinguishable from limb extension.

"That feels much better," Octavius ​​said, stretching his neck.

Parker didn't give him time to adjust.

Spider silk shot from his hands, wrapping around the two nearest robotic arms. Parker's pulling force was in the tens of tons. He lowered his center of gravity, braced his feet on the bridge surface, and pulled back.

The robotic arm remained completely still.

Electromagnetic drive. The output torque is incomparable to hydraulic. Parker knew it wouldn't work after pulling for a second and a half, so he let go and changed tactics, trying to approach Octavius ​​directly from the side.

The robotic arm from the lower left swept across. Parker dodged using his spider-sense, but the arm from the upper right immediately followed, slamming down from above. He rolled away, his web catching on the bridge tower's cable, sending him swinging five meters away.

The third arm.

It didn't attack Parker. It picked up the set of electromagnets that had been de-energized from the ground and reconnected the power cord. During the four seconds that Parker was entangled by the other two arms...

Multitasking. Each arm operates independently.

Parker hung from the steel cable, catching his breath. Sweat streamed from his forehead into his eyes beneath the mask.

"Your reaction speed is 1.7 times mine." Octavius ​​stood still, not giving chase. His four arms remained behind him in a defensive stance. "Your strength is about three times. But I have four extra limbs, each with a reaction delay of less than eleven milliseconds, simultaneously processing four independent motion sequences. Have you ever done this math?"

Parker did it. The answer was against him.

He jumped off the steel cable and rushed forward again. This time, the target was the electromagnet; all he needed to do was dismantle those things and throw them off the bridge, at least no civilians would be harmed.

As he touched the bolts of the first set of electromagnets, a robotic arm grabbed him from behind around the waist. Parker was lifted up and swung...

He went out. He adjusted his posture in mid-air, his spider silk catching on the railing, barely bringing him to a stop.

The second attack was even faster. Both arms moved simultaneously, one sweeping the leg, the other locking the throat. Parker dodged the sweep, but not the throat lock. Metal fingers gripped his neck, the force precisely controlled within a range that wouldn't crush his trachea but also wouldn't allow him to break free.

Octavius ​​walked over and stood in front of Parker. The robotic arm lifted Parker into the air, his feet not touching the ground.

"I didn't mean to hurt you. But you're in my way."

Parker tried to pry the metal hand off. He couldn't.

"You're the smartest student I've ever taught, Parker. Go do what you're supposed to do at seventeen. There's no problem here you can solve."

He let go. Parker landed on the ground, kneeling and coughing.

Octavius ​​turned back to continue wiring. The four robotic arms working simultaneously were more than six times more efficient than two hands. The third set of electromagnets was energized. Another car crossing the bridge had its dashboard malfunction, the driver cursed and swerved, the tires scraping against the guardrail before coming to a stop.

Parker got up from the ground, retreated into the shadow of the bridge tower, and took out his phone.

His hands were shaking. He typed it three times.

"I can't stop him. Where are you?"

There was no reply for thirty seconds. Parker sent another message.

"He's electrifying the entire bridge. People will die if the fourth connection is completed."

Ten seconds passed again. Parker's thumb hovered above the screen, seemingly unsure what to type.

The reply came: one word: "Okay."

Parker looked up.

Nothing had changed on the bridge. Octavius ​​was still connecting the fourth set of electromagnets. The robotic arm moved smoothly, and the sound of the metal joints was crisp in the night wind.

It wasn't loosened. The bolt's structure itself changed. The threads of the steel hexagonal bolt became smooth cylindrical surfaces from beginning to end, losing all engagement force, causing the electromagnet to slip off the railing and fall to the ground.

Octavius's mechanical arm snapped back into a defensive stance. He stared at the bolt on the ground for two seconds.

"This is not something you can do," he told Parker.

Parker didn't answer. Because he was watching too.

Group 3, Group 2, Group 1. All the bolts deformed simultaneously. The electromagnets all detached and lay paralyzed on the bridge surface. The copper core of the power cord turned into lead at the interface, causing the resistance to spike and the current to drop to zero.

Octavius ​​took two steps back. All four mechanical arms extended, forming a 360-degree defensive circle around him.

"Who's there?"

No one answered.

Parker stared at the direction of the third steel cable on the left side of the bridge tower, where there was an inexplicable difference in air density. It wasn't visual; his spider-sense told him that there was mass at that coordinate.

He appeared.

There is no transition. The previous frame is empty, and the next frame shows the person standing there. Backlit, the sodium lamps on the bridge shine on him from behind. He is wearing very ordinary clothes, standing casually with his hands in his pockets.

Octavius's four robotic arms pointed at him simultaneously. The four fingers at their ends spread out, and the built-in plasma cutter preheated and activated.

"The twenty-first day," the person said casually, as if chatting. "Long enough."

A robotic arm took the lead. It moved with incredible speed, its end effector leaving a trail of blue-white arcs.

His hands didn't come out of his pockets.

The robotic arm stopped forty centimeters from his chest. Not because it was blocked, but because its electromagnetic drive system had ceased responding to movement commands. A layer of grayish-white veining appeared on the arm's metal casing, spreading from the tip towards the base. Titanium.

The alloy's crystal structure was being rewritten, transforming it into something else. When Parker later analyzed the fragments in the lab, he discovered they were dolomite, a carbonate mineral with a hardness of 3.5, which could be scratched with a fingernail.

The second arm moved. The third. The fourth. All of them.

All four arms turned to stone at the same time.