Chapter 55: Chapter 55: Tournament's Beginning III
And if he remembered that one ninja show from the 21st century he watched that one time, then they probably weren't as durable as the original one.
So he should just go in and try to immobilize one of the copies to win!
Yeah, that sounded like a plan.
...
Narrowing his lenses at his opponent/opponents, Peter backflipped into the air and aimed his wrists at the column on the other side of the ring.
Just as the webs connected to the stone pillars, Peter pulled himself forward with just enough strength to gain momentum but not break the pillars.
Even if he had a new plan, he still wanted to show off a bit, you know?
Flying through the air as the crowd roared, Peter landed a dropkick on one copy that immediately went up in smoke at the impact.
Peter rolled to a stop, groaning at seeing Kemuri immediately create a new clone to replace the one from before.
Great, she could just replace them that quickly? God, this fight was gonna s-
Mid-thought, his lenses widened at the blaring at the back of his skull that pointed him in nearly all directions.
Hands shot out to grab him, Peter jumping back into the air and webbing some clones to the ground before sticking to the closest pillar.
The webbed clones struggled for a bit, quickly seeming to give up and disappearing in a cloud of smoke before being replaced by new ones.
Oh, come on!
"Hey, can I convince you to like, cut down the clones to 5 or something? I never fight more than 5 people on weekdays." Peter said, getting a few chuckles from some is the clones.
At least some of them had a sense of humor!
He flipped forward and shot two webs at the ground, pulling himself down and landing in the middle of the crowd of copies.
If she could just destroy and re-create her clones that fast, then his plan went out of the window.
Again.
Crap.
That also meant she could just un-summon the copy that would touch the outside of the ring before it actually did, forcing Peter to somehow find the actual Kemuri.
Crap.
Whatever, he'd figure something out on the fly like usual.
He ducked under at least 7 different swings from different directions, Peter sweeping the leg out from two of them that went up in smoke once they hit the ground.
Spider-sense ringing, Peter sidestepped what looked to be 4 clones using another one as a… blunt weapon/battering ram?
He'd laugh about that sight if it wasn't directed at him.
Just as he felt the familiar buzzing in the back of his skull, Peter then realized that someone had grabbed him by the back of the shirt.
This was gonna start an unfortunate chain of events, wasn't it?
The one that had grabbed him by the collar quickly got to work, picking him up and throwing him toward the fist of another copy.
He hit the ground with a thud, the crowd roaring around him as one of the copies huffed him above her head and began to walk toward the outside of the ring.
First, that punch really hurt.
Seriously, it hit him right in the nose.
Second, as if he was gonna lose that easily!
Peter shot a web toward one of the pillars, pulling himself free of his opponent's grasp before twisting in the air and landing an ax kick on one of them.
Touching the ground, Peter used it as a springboard to launch himself into the air again, above two copies trying to grab at him before he slammed their heads together.
As they disappeared into smoke, Peter rolled to a stop on the ground before jumping back onto his feet and facing the mass of copies just as they replaced the 3 he had destroyed.
Eh, whatever.
Four copies launched into a tackle at him, forcing him to jump up and let them slam into each other, thus making them disappear.
"Wow, you guys forgot to turn off friendly fire?" He laughed a bit, grabbing another copy by the shoulders with two lines of web before spinning in the air and slamming them onto a group of copies that were quickly replaced.
Seriously, could she just quit doing that! It was to the point it was demoralizing, man!
Peter landed with another roll, sending a right hook that his opponent barely sidestepped before he felt his spider-sense ring in the back of his head.
Before he could even react to the warning, he felt both his arms being grabbed from behind him by two people.
Oh, they were setting him up.
Man.
Why couldn't this be one of those times he just reacted to his spider-sense on instinct?
Next thing he knew, Peter received a strong knee to the stomach that knocked nearly all the wind out of him.
Freaking ow!
Yeah, he wasn't gonna do this whole thing.
Seeing as his feet were still on the ground, Peter stuck to it for leverage before swinging his arms forwards and throwing the two clones off of him.
Quickly, his lenses narrowed at the clone that had just kneed him and covered their eyes in webbing.
As the girl struggled against the webs, Peter simply attached a web to her and began spinning her around as fast as he could.
If she could use her own clones as blunt weapons, why couldn't he borrow a page out of her book?
Plus, it was super efficient to use someone as a weapon when fighting a crowd! You wouldn't believe how much it came in handy back in his vigilante days.
Worked super well when it came to drug deals, you know?
Peter rotated a few times, taking out at least 7 clones before the one he was holding also turned into smoke.
He sighed for a second, waving the smoke away from his face as he jumped back towards the center of the arena to get some space.
Man, maybe that power nap he took after the first event wasn't enough after all.
Cause he was starting to get a tiny bit tired.
Even so, it didn't look like he was the only one.
His lenses narrowed at the girl/s in front of him as the crowds roared louder and louder, watching them start to pant slowly before replacing the clones he had destroyed with new ones.
She was getting tired, wasn't she? Replacing all those clones must take stamina, then!
Looks like his theory was right on that, which meant there was the option of simply forcing her to create more and more clones until she can't go on.
But that sounded boring, you know? If they were on live TV, they should at least put on more of a show.
Well, more of a show than what they'd already been putting on.
Which by the sound of the crowd for the past few minutes, was a pretty entertaining show!
Who knew watching children fighting each other could be so entertaining?
Not him, that's for sure!
Peter began sprinting towards the clones, watching them tense up and arrange themselves into a defensive formation that would best deal with him crashing into them.
But no, he was going with the smarter and flashier approach on this one.
He shot a web at one of the pillars next to the group, gripping the line tightly once it stuck to the stone before pulling himself off the ground with a small whoop.
Alright, this should work as long as the laws of physics hadn't changed last time he checked.
Knowing his luck, that might actually be the case.
Peter swung around the pillar, barely a few feet from touching the outside of the ting before his swing finally landed him right where he wanted.
Behind the group of clones, where their formation would be the weakest.
Not only that, but he had also realized something during this fight about his opponent.
If the actual Kemuri wasn't able to just un-summon herself like she could with her clones, that would mean she would probably be the most vulnerable.
And where else would she avoid conflict than hiding behind expendable copies of herself, right?
So that's exactly where he went!
Hopefully this theory would also be correct.
The stadium held their breath, watching Peter swing less than a foot off of the outside of the ring before he slammed into the crowd of copies like a bowling ball.
Launching up into the air at the apex of his swing, Peter felt the world move as if in slow motion as the Kemuri's copies were knocked to the ground, with only a few of them actually demanifesting at the impact.
All around him, he could hear the muffled sound of cheers and roars from the audience over the sound of his heart beating as he slowly lost altitude.
He could see Kemuri was about to replace the clones she just lost, forcing him to act quicker.
How did he win this? He had to immobilize one of them, but on the likely chance it was a clone, she could just make it disappear!
Just like that, it was as if a metaphorical lightbulb went off above his masked head.
If he can't immobilize one of them because of the chance it was a clone…
Why doesn't he just immobilize all of them?
His lenses narrowed in concentration while he quickly lost altitude, the boy taking a deep breath as his fingers hovered above the triggers of his web-shooters.
No better way to test out a new move than right after you think of it, huh?
Quickly, Peter began to spin in the air as he fell, frantically shooting out webs in every single direction around him.
Most webs hit nothing, landing either on the grass outside of the arena or on the cement below him.
But some of them, though? They were right on target.
Peter hit the ground softly, hearing the quiet click signaling an empty cartridge along with the struggles of multiple people trapped in web.
He couldn't help the small smirk that appeared under the mask when he looked around him.
Every single copy had been webbed to the floor, they struggled for a bit before giving up and becoming nothing but smoke.
All but one, that is.
The original.
Kemuri tried again to break free from the web, before smiling a small smile and giving up.
The stadium was quiet for a moment, watching the scene before erupting in thunderous cheers at the match's end.
"Kuron Kemuri is unable to move! Peter Parker is the winner!" Midnight announced with a grin, the stadium devolving into cheers and applause as Peter placed his hands on his knees for a moment while letting out a sigh.
Man, that was awesome.
He should probably name that move.
"Oh, what a match, listeners! Parker had it rough at the beginning, but overcame Kemuri's quirk with creative use of his support gear!" Present Mic laughed, Peter decided to tune out his commentary from that point on.
Seriously, he might get a migraine from all that yelling.
Peter lifted his goggles for a moment, rubbing his increasingly tired eyes before pulling them back down and lifting up his shirt to reach into his belt.
The amount of wolf whistles from the crowd made his skin crawl.
Grabbing a small bottle of web dissolvent, Peter went over to Kemuri and freed her from the webbing, holding out a hand to help the girl back onto her feet.
"Say, you're pretty strong, little guy! We should totally fight again sometime, huh?" She laughed, patting him on the shoulder before walking back into the stadium while waving to the crowd.
Little guy? He was 5'7! That was average height for someone his age!
He groaned for a moment, simply walking in the opposite direction and back to the stadium.
"Hey, you did good, Parker! I bet Shouta is real proud of you right now." Midnight covered her mic, offering him a genuine smile.
Peter only nodded with a small laugh, continuing to walk back into the stadium.
Making Aizawa proud was great, even if the guy wouldn't show it to his face.
He hoped Ben felt the same way right now.
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