Emma created a double-ended spear and attacked Jack, who was surprised by her earlier stunt. He quickly created a shield and blocked her attack, the impact sending cracks spiderwebbing across its crystal surface.
"That was some attack." Jack looked around at the entire area, now covered by crystals, and commented.
Emma didn't give him a second to breathe. She spun the double-ended spear and thrust it forward, forcing Jack to sidestep while firing a crystal volley from his free hand. Emma deflected them with a single sweep of the spear shaft and instantly closed the distance, slashing high, then low, in quick succession.
Jack blocked the high slash with a newly formed bracer and ducked under the low one, retaliating with a straight punch aimed at her torso. Emma twisted sideways, letting the fist graze past her, and brought the butt end of the spear around into Jack's ribs. The hit landed with a heavy crack.
Jack grunted and skidded back a few steps before grinning.
Both started going all out after that, and Emma seemed very skilled with the spear. She fought with smooth, practiced movements—feinting left, striking right, keeping the spear constantly in motion so Jack could never get a clean read on her next move. Jack matched her blow for blow, creating shields, firing crystal bursts, and using his larger frame to absorb hits that Emma couldn't fully dodge. They fought seriously, pulling out different attacks one after another, neither gaining a clear upper hand.
Then both started going bigger. Jack slammed both palms into the ground and sent a wave of jagged crystals erupting toward Emma. Emma leapt over them and launched a barrage of crystal spears straight down at Jack from the air. Jack raised a thick wall to block them, but the force shattered it into chunks that flew in every direction, tearing gouges across the training floor.
The shockwave knocked over the equipment on the far side of the room. Cracks spread across the walls. A section of the ceiling rained dust and debris.
Gwen and Morgan quickly stepped back from the area.
"I think they completely forgot their surroundings and got immersed in the fight. You better stop them before they destroy the place," Morgan told Gwen.
"These two really are father and daughter. They completely forgot to control their attacks." Saying that, Gwen shouted at them to stop the fight.
"You both, stop the fight and look around at how much you've damaged this place. Fix it before it gets completely destroyed."
Hearing Gwen, both looked around the practice area and realized they had damaged it heavily. With no other option, they stopped the fight.
"Let's postpone our fight for later. This place is still too small for me to attack fully," Jack said as he undid his transformation.
"Ok, but I think I had a better chance of winning," Emma commented.
"What? No, I was just going easy on you." Jack didn't agree, and the two went back and forth with each other.
"You both stop that and fix this place quickly." Hearing Gwen, both of them, with no other option, started fixing the training area. Thanks to Emma's gadgets that could repair things, they were able to fix it easily, and that night passed quickly.
The next day at school, Jack and Gwen were sitting together in class. Jack lightly held Gwen's hand under the desk while she smiled at him. The two kept whispering to each other, completely ignoring everyone around them.
"Can't you guys stop that? It makes us singles feel bad." MJ looked at the two with a helpless expression and joked.
"Hey guys, check this out." Peter interrupted them as he showed his phone playing the news.
[Latest news from the Daily Bugle! Today, an Oscorp building was attacked by a masked man flying through the air on a strange glider while wearing a goblin-like mask. He reportedly attacked several Oscorp shareholders before escaping.]
Seeing the pictures on the news, Jack was sure that it was Oscorp CEO Norman Osborn. Since Harry Osborn didn't study at this school, neither he, Peter, nor anyone here had any connection to him, so Jack had completely forgotten about this character.
He remembered that Norman seemed to have a family genetic disease and had been trying to find a cure for it. Even the Spider-Man formula was created while he was trying to cure his disease, but it failed. It seemed he had used Dr. Connors' unfinished medicine, developed a split personality, and eventually became the Green Goblin.
"This guy is a complete psycho. While flying around, he was throwing bombs at buildings and innocent people." Peter cursed as he looked at the images. If this had been live, he could've gone to fight that guy. What a pity it wasn't.
"New York is getting filled with some weird people. I'm even starting to feel afraid to go outside at night now," MJ said worriedly.
"I think going outside is really dangerous! But if you ever want to go somewhere, just call me. I'll make sure you get there safely." Peter said without thinking much about it.
"Oh? Since when did you become my personal bodyguard?" MJ looked at Peter with a teasing smile.
"I-I didn't mean it like that. I just..." Peter scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
Seeing the two, Jack and Gwen exchanged a look.
"Telling us not to flirt, and now you two are flirting?" Gwen teased with a smile.
Hearing that, Peter immediately became a little shy. "We're not flirting!"
MJ just laughed and continued teasing him. Soon, the bell rang, and classes were over.
"Jack, I'm going to resume my training at Colleen Wing's place from today. Why don't we go together?"
"Sorry, Peter. I have some work today. And now I only go to Colleen's place twice a week to train."
"Oh, ok, my bad. See ya later."
Leaving them behind, Peter soon arrived at Colleen's dojo.
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