The pain Victor endured at that moment was something ordinary people could never imagine.
It felt as though countless blades were slicing through his flesh at the same time. At the same time, it felt like his entire body had been thrown into a furnace, flames devouring every inch of bone and muscle. The sensations overlapped and multiplied, wave after wave of agony crashing directly into his brain.
His consciousness trembled on the edge of collapse.
Even someone with Victor's brutal resilience was reaching his limit.
Seeing this, Ethan Cole raised his hand slightly and used his telekinetic precision to sever several of Victor's major pain-transmitting nerves. The intention was simple: block the pain signals before they reached the brain.
For a brief moment, the screaming stopped.
But the relief lasted only seconds.
Victor's regenerative ability immediately began repairing the damage. The severed nerves regenerated rapidly, reconnecting within moments as if nothing had happened.
The moment they reattached, the unbearable pain returned.
Victor's body convulsed violently again.
Ethan frowned slightly and cut the nerves a second time.
Unfortunately, this was not a true solution. Victor's healing factor simply worked too quickly. Every time the nerves were severed, they regenerated again within seconds.
The only thing Ethan could do was repeat the process over and over, cutting the nerves before the pain could overwhelm Victor's mind and drive him completely insane.
The laboratory echoed with strained breathing and the low mechanical hum of machines as the experiment continued.
Meanwhile, the Adamantium injection process moved forward at a slow and careful pace.
The molten alloy could not be delivered too quickly. If the flow rate was even slightly miscalculated, the subject's body could collapse under the thermal stress.
Because of this, the injection process lasted nearly twenty minutes.
At last, the final portion of molten Adamantium entered Victor's body.
Inside the cooling tank surrounding the test bench, the liquid coolant had begun boiling violently. Steam rose from the surface in thick clouds as heat radiated outward from Victor's body.
Hot gas burst from the tank in waves.
Victor's body suddenly trembled violently, his muscles spasming as if he were suffering a massive seizure. The convulsions shook the entire cooling chamber, sending waves crashing against the metal walls.
Water splashed violently in every direction.
Ethan stood quietly beside the test bench, watching Victor with calm focus as the transformation continued.
A moment later, Svija's voice sounded in his ear.
"Sir, the target's heart rate has increased significantly. However, it does not currently threaten survival."
"Brainwave patterns are unstable, but analysis indicates the subject has regained full consciousness."
"Bone structure throughout the body has now been completely replaced with Adamantium."
"Estimated cooling time: thirty seconds."
Ethan nodded slightly.
"Very good. Continue monitoring."
The words had barely left his mouth when the cooling tank exploded.
With a thunderous splash, the boiling coolant burst upward in a massive wave. Countless droplets filled the air, completely blocking Ethan's vision for a brief instant.
Within the curtain of water, something flashed.
A sharp silver light cut through the droplets like a blade.
Victor's hands shot forward.
His ten fingers had lengthened slightly, and the nails at their tips now gleamed with a bright metallic sheen. The Adamantium coating had hardened his claws into deadly weapons.
The claws sliced through the falling water.
They shot straight toward Ethan's throat.
After the Adamantium bonding process had finished, Ethan had already released the telepathic control over Victor's thoughts. Victor now possessed full awareness of everything that had happened to him.
He understood the experiment.
He understood the torture.
And the hatred he felt toward Ethan required no explanation.
The claws tore through the air with a faint whistling sound. Even the droplets of water were sliced apart by the sheer speed of the strike.
For a brief instant, time itself seemed to slow.
Through the shifting curtain of water, Ethan could clearly see Victor's face as the mutant lunged toward him. It was filled with savage rage, his eyes burning like those of a wild predator preparing to tear its prey apart.
From the moment Victor erupted out of the tank to the instant his claws reached Ethan's throat, less than half a second had passed.
Even many powerful mutants would struggle to react to such speed.
An ordinary human would have been killed instantly.
Yet Ethan's response was astonishingly calm.
He simply tilted his body slightly to the side.
Victor's razor-sharp claws passed by Ethan's nose, missing his throat by a hair's breadth.
In the next moment, Ethan's hand moved.
He casually brushed the surface of the test bench, and two surgical scalpels instantly appeared between his fingers.
With a swift upward motion, he struck.
Thunk.
Victor's scream tore through the laboratory.
Both scalpels had been driven directly into his eyes.
The thin blades pierced through his eyeballs without resistance. Blood mixed with cloudy fluid immediately began streaming down his face.
Even with Victor's incredible healing factor, the pain of having both eyes stabbed at once was still unbearable.
Before Victor could recover, Ethan grabbed a fistful of his hair.
With a sharp twist of his arm, he slammed Victor's head sideways into one of the heavy mechanical arms beside the test bench.
The impact produced a dull, crushing sound.
For an ordinary person, such a blow would have shattered the skull instantly.
Victor's condition looked no better.
The scalp across his forehead split open under the force of the collision. The torn flesh peeled back slightly, revealing the gleaming silver structure beneath—the Adamantium skeleton now fused to his bones.
Blood burst from the wound.
In seconds, half of Victor's body was soaked in crimson.
The impact left him momentarily disoriented despite his enhanced durability. Ethan released his grip, and Victor's body dropped heavily back into the cooling tank.
The splash of liquid surged upward but halted abruptly in front of Ethan, sliding down as if it had struck an invisible wall created by his telekinetic barrier.
Ethan spoke calmly.
"Secure him."
"Understood, sir."
The robotic arms immediately moved.
They grabbed Victor's struggling body and forced him back into the Adamantium restraints on the operating platform. The walls of the cooling tank folded downward while the remaining coolant was drained away through hidden channels.
Moments later, Victor lay exposed on the test bench.
He gasped violently for air.
Despite the brutal injuries he had just suffered, his body was already recovering at an incredible speed. The two scalpels were slowly pushed out of his eye sockets as the damaged tissue regenerated.
Within moments, his eyes had healed completely.
Victor glared at Ethan with pure hatred.
Ethan watched him quietly for a moment.
"To be honest," he said calmly, "I don't particularly like that expression."
Victor's face twitched, the muscles around his eyes jumping with barely restrained rage. Yet he continued staring at Ethan as though he wanted to tear him apart with his bare hands.
Ethan didn't seem bothered.
Instead, he folded his arms slightly.
"There is some good news for you," he said. "I believe you've already noticed."
"The Adamantium bonding was extremely successful."
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"Your skeleton has now been completely replaced with Adamantium, just like your brother Wolverine."
Ethan tilted his head thoughtfully.
"In fact, the name Sabretooth doesn't seem very fitting anymore."
He looked down at Victor.
"From now on, perhaps you should be called the Steel-Toothed Tiger."
.....
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