The six cloaked figures moved with deadly precision, each brandishing different types of claws. Some had retractable metal talons like Laura's, others wielded curved bone spikes that emerged from their knuckles, and one had what looked like serrated adamantium blades extending from his forearms.
They attacked simultaneously, coming at Lucien from multiple angles with the coordination of a pack predator.
Lucien didn't speak. Didn't taunt. Didn't waste time with words.
His focus was singular—to protect his family and destroy anything that threatened them.
The first attacker reached him with claws aimed at his throat. Lucien caught the man's wrist and twisted, the sharp crack of breaking bone echoing through the silent street.
The attacker screamed, but Lucien wasn't finished. He drove his knee up into the man's elbow, bending the joint backward until it snapped completely.
A second attacker tried to flank him from the right. Lucien spun and grabbed him by the head, his fingers digging into the man's skull before slamming him face-first into the concrete. The pavement cracked under the impact, and blood pooled around the attacker's motionless form.
But then something impossible happened. The first attacker, whose arm Lucien had just shattered, stood up. The bones were visibly healing, snapping back into place with wet, grinding sounds.
"Regeneration," Lucien thought coldly. "Just like Laura."
It didn't matter. It just meant he'd have to be more thorough.
The third attacker lunged at him with bone spikes extended. Lucien caught both his wrists and applied pressure until the bones splintered. Then he lifted the man above his head and brought him down across his knee, the sickening crack of a breaking spine filling the air.
The fourth and fifth came together, trying to overwhelm him with coordinated strikes. Lucien stepped into their attack, letting their claws scrape harmlessly against his body, then grabbed each by the throat. He lifted them off the ground and slammed them together with enough force to crush their ribcages.
Even as they began to heal, Lucien wasn't done. He wanted them to feel pain. Real pain. The kind of agony they'd planned to inflict on his friends.
He stomped on the first attacker's leg, his enhanced strength driving the man's femur straight through the skin and muscle. The scream was cut short when Lucien's boot connected with his jaw, pulverizing teeth and bone.
"You like hurting people?" Lucien said quietly, his voice carrying deadly calm as he grabbed another attacker by the ankle and dragged him across the broken pavement. "Let me show you how it feels."
The sixth attacker tried to run. Lucien caught him within three steps, grabbing him by the back of the head and driving his face into a brick wall. The impact left a crater in the masonry and painted the bricks with blood.
As the attackers kept trying to regenerate, Lucien realized he needed a more permanent solution. His daggers materialized in his hands, the familiar weight bringing a sense of deadly purpose.
"Time to see how well you heal without heads," he said.
What followed was clean and brutal. Lucien moved through the regenerating attackers like a force of nature, his blades finding necks without missing. But he didn't make it quick. Each cut was preceded by broken bones, torn muscles, and the kind of violence that spoke of absolute fury held in perfect control.
The first head rolled across the pavement with the wet sound of separating vertebrae. Then the second. Then the third.
Throughout the massacre, one figure had remained motionless, watching from the shadows near a streetlight. As Lucien decapitated the last of his followers, this final observer stepped forward.
Lucien recognized him immediately—the man he'd bumped into that afternoon. The one who'd reminded him of Logan.
Now, seeing him clearly, the resemblance was even more striking. Same build, same feral bearing, same dangerous stillness that marked him as a predator.
"Interesting," the man said, his voice carrying amusement despite the carnage around them. "Why is a strong one such as yourself protecting the offspring of Wolverine?"
These attackers hadn't been random—they'd been targeting Laura specifically. That knowledge only fed the cold fire burning in his chest.
Lucien began walking toward the man slowly, deliberately, his bloodied daggers still in his hands.
The stranger reached up and pulled back his hood, revealing a face that could have been Logan's twin. Same grizzled features, same wild hair, same predatory smile.
"I see," the man continued, seeming genuinely entertained by Lucien's approach. "So you are not satisfied with just the blood of my kin..."
He spread his arms in a gesture of mock welcome. "Very well. My name is Romulus, and I—"
Before he could finish the sentence, Lucien disappeared from his position and materialized directly beside Romulus, moving faster than Romulus's eyes could track.
"And I don't care," Lucien said, his hand closing around Romulus's face like a vise.
With tremendous force, he drove Romulus straight down into the asphalt, the impact creating a crater and sending spiderwebbed cracks racing across the street in all directions.
Romulus tried to struggle, his claws extending as he attempted to slash at Lucien's arms. But Lucien was beyond caring about minor wounds. He grabbed Romulus by both ankles and lifted him into the air like a club.
The first impact against the pavement sent tremors through the ground. The second created a deeper crater. By the fifth impact, the street looked like it had been hit by a meteorite.
"You want to hurt my family?" Lucien said between impacts, his voice carrying the kind of cold fury that promised no mercy. "You want to threaten the people I care about?"
Another devastating impact. More cracks spread through the asphalt.
"Let me teach you about consequences."
Romulus's healing factor was impressive, but even it had limits. After the tenth impact, his struggles became weaker. After the fifteenth, they stopped entirely.
Lucien dropped the broken form of Romulus onto the shattered street, watching as the man tried weakly to regenerate from his injuries. Blood pooled around him, and his breathing was labored and uneven.
Only then did Lucien turn to look at his friends, who had been watching the entire brutal display in stunned silence.
Anna was pale but determined, supporting Laura's unconscious form with Daniel's help. Illyana stood slightly apart, her expression unreadable as she studied the destruction around them, but she looked tired.
"Anna," Lucien said quietly, his voice returning to something approaching normal. "Come here."
Anna carefully handed Laura over to Daniel and Illyana before walking toward Lucien, stepping around the puddles of blood and scattered body parts that littered the street.
"You wanted to help me, right?" Lucien asked, his eyes still fixed on Romulus's broken form. "You said you wanted to be useful, to contribute something meaningful."
Anna nodded slowly, understanding beginning to dawn in her eyes. "Yes."
"Then use your powers on him," Lucien said, gesturing toward Romulus. "Finish this."
Anna knew exactly what that would mean. When she absorbed someone's life force, she temporarily gained their powers, their memories, and their abilities.
In Romulus's case, that would mean enhanced senses, accelerated healing, claws, and probably much more.
But that wasn't Lucien's goal, and they both knew it.
He wanted her to kill Romulus. To be the one to end the threat permanently.
Anna looked down at the man who had orchestrated an attack on her family, who had sent killers after Laura, who would have hurt or killed all of them if Lucien hadn't intervened.
She didn't hesitate.
Anna knelt beside Romulus and placed her bare hand against his forehead. The effect was immediate.
Romulus's eyes snapped open as he felt his life force being drained away, his healing factor working desperately to counteract the absorption. His entire body convulsed as Anna's power took hold.
"What... what are you doing?" he gasped, his voice losing its earlier arrogance. "Stop... please..."
But Anna wasn't going to stop just because he screamed. If Laura hadn't fought them off before Lucien arrived, they might all be dead right now.
"Please!" Romulus begged, his superior attitude completely gone as he felt his strength ebbing away. "I can give you information! Wealth! Whatever you want!"
Anna's expression remained cold and determined. "I want you to pay for threatening my family."
Romulus's struggles grew weaker as more of his life force flowed into Anna. She could feel some of his memories mixing with her own—of violence, manipulation, and cruelty. The knowledge of every person he'd killed, every life he'd destroyed in his pursuit of power.
It only strengthened her resolve.
"Stop... please... I'm sorry..." Romulus whispered, his voice barely audible now.
Anna kept absorbing until there was nothing left to take. Until Romulus's eyes went blank and his body went still. Until she was certain he would never threaten anyone ever again.
When she finally pulled her hand away, the street fell silent except for the sound of her breathing.
The job was done.
The knock-off Wolverine was dead.
.....
POWER STONE GOAL: 700 ( 1 Extra Chapter)
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