Hunter and prey

Lucian's breath caught.

The quietest, deadliest killing machine in the Seven.

Why was he here?

Doppelganger couldn't possibly have noticed he was being followed. Black Noir's stealth was among the best in all of Vought.

Had Madelyn sent him? Or was this a private order from Homelander?

Either way, Black Noir's appearance had completely disrupted the plan.

Black Noir stopped.

He didn't draw a weapon, just stood there quietly, watching Doppelganger.

Then Black Noir slowly raised his right hand and made a gesture in the air.

It was a tactical hand signal.

Fingers curled, chopping downward.

Target confirmed. Prepare to eliminate.

Black Noir stepped forward without a sound, closing in on Doppelganger like a ghost.

Lucian extended his senses to their fullest. His hearing cast a net over the entire stretch of woods.

He picked up no other breathing. Just Black Noir and Doppelganger.

He couldn't let Doppelganger die.

Super speed erupted.

Lucian shot out through the cabin window, trailing a gust of wind. Glass fragments flew through the air.

Before Doppelganger could even turn around, a hand clamped onto the back of his neck.

LV3 mind control flooded in instantly.

Doppelganger's eyes rolled back, and he went limp.

Lucian swung him around, throwing Doppelganger precisely into the cabin.

Black Noir stayed where he was and didn't pursue. His masked head tilted slightly as he studied Lucian, who had suddenly appeared.

No surprise. No hesitation.

This killing machine had long since prepared for unexpected developments. No matter who appeared beside the target, he had only one task: eliminate them.

Black Noir's entire body was covered by a specially made tactical suit, leaving mind control useless. Then Lucian would kill him by force.

Carbon skin activated. The tissue beneath his skin instantly transformed into a high-strength carbon-based metamaterial.

Partial metallization covered both fists. The muscles of his arms bulged beneath his clothes.

Super speed activated again.

Trailing afterimages, Lucian charged straight at Black Noir's face. His right fist slammed down with an air-rending sonic boom.

Black Noir seemed to have anticipated Lucian's incoming fist. His right hand gripped his knife handle, drew, and slashed.

The blade struck Lucian's knuckles with precision.

A tremendous reaction force hit him. The slash forced Lucian back three full steps. His soles plowed two deep furrows through the soil.

A white mark remained on the metallic surface of his right fist.

Such strength. His body has to be at least LV4, Lucian thought.

Black Noir advanced. His steps looked heavy, but he moved extremely fast. Both hands swept across his waist, and two throwing knives flew free.

Lucian twisted aside. The knives grazed his ear and sank into the tree trunk behind him, disappearing completely inside.

Super speed at full throttle. Lucian circled Black Noir at high speed, kicking up a ring of dust.

Blue light rose in his eyes. LV4 Heat Vision fired.

Two high-temperature beams struck Black Noir's chest. The powerful impact sent him flying, snapping a red pine as thick as a bowl's rim.

Black Noir rolled once on the ground and dropped to one knee. His suit had burned through at the chest, exposing charred flesh.

He didn't even grunt.

Looks like a single hit doesn't do enough damage. I need sustained output.

Lucian accelerated again. He circled into Black Noir's blind spot and chopped a hand at his neck from behind.

Black Noir seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. His left hand reached back and firmly blocked Lucian's wrist. The knife in his right hand followed the motion upward, stabbing straight at Lucian's eyes.

Lucian raised his left hand and caught the tip in his palm.

The combined defenses of metallization and carbon skin stopped the blow. The knife tip burst into sparks against his palm.

Close enough.

Blue light blazed in Lucian's eyes. Heat vision at maximum output blasted directly into Black Noir's face.

The black mask melted instantly. Searing heat burned Black Noir's cheeks, curling his flesh and giving off an acrid stench.

Black Noir didn't struggle. He simply released the knife handle, seized Lucian's arm with both hands, and drove through his waist.

A clean, decisive shoulder throw.

The world spun before his eyes.

Lucian slammed into the ground.

Before he could rise, Black Noir had already straddled him. His left hand clamped around Lucian's throat while his right drew a second knife from his boot and drove it viciously toward Lucian's slightly open mouth.

This lunatic. He's completely abandoned defense, going for a one-hit kill.

LV4 thermonuclear manipulation erupted instantly.

Roaring flames engulfed Lucian's entire body. Two-thousand-degree heat spread outward from him. The surrounding dead leaves burst into flame.

Black Noir's left side was instantly swallowed by fire. His suit melted, his skin nearly carbonized.

Lucian tensed his arms, preparing to grab Black Noir and burn him to nothing with the heat.

But Black Noir let go at that moment. His legs kicked hard against the ground, launching him five meters backward.

He stood there, half his body still smoking, yet bent down to retrieve the two knives from the ground.

With both knives in hand, Black Noir assumed an intensely oppressive opening stance.

Through that exchange, Black Noir had already figured Lucian out. Tough skin, fast, capable of setting fires, and equipped with heat vision.

His next attacks would all target weak points the skin couldn't protect: the mouth, nose, and ears.

Watching Black Noir's stance, which promised a fight to the death, Lucian made his decision. But he would need to watch the force of his next attack.

Lucian's feet left the ground. Thermonuclear Flight activated.

He rose into the air and looked down at Black Noir.

Looking at Lucian in midair, Black Noir turned to charge toward the cabin.

Two blue heat-vision beams cut precisely into the soil in front of Black Noir's feet, leaving a charred trench.

Black Noir was forced to stop. Every time he tried to change direction, a heat-vision beam intercepted him first.

In midair, leaping blue arcs appeared within the flames burning over Lucian.

The surrounding air began to distort. Blue arcs converged wildly on Lucian's palms. The light grew increasingly dazzling, shifting from deep blue to blazing white through light energy manipulation.

The powerful energy fluctuations scorched the air below. The edges of leaves curled and dried.

Black Noir tightened his grip on his knives, bending his knees slightly in preparation to dodge. He stared up at the light source in midair, trying to find an opening in Lucian through the glare.

But Lucian would give him no more chances. Light Energy Propulsion stacked with Thermonuclear Propulsion.

Lucian changed direction twice in the air and broke the sound barrier, hurtling straight at Black Noir's face with a blazing-white afterimage trailing behind him.

Black Noir raised a knife to slash.

Too slow.

With the dual acceleration, Lucian's speed reached a terrifying threshold.

He avoided Black Noir's head and abdomen, aiming both palms at his right shoulder.

Light Cannon, fire.

A blazing-white pillar of light erupted instantly. The glare swallowed everything around them.

A tremendous roar echoed through the woods. Soil flew, and trees were uprooted. The shock wave flattened all vegetation within dozens of meters.

The light faded.

Black Noir lay on the ground ten meters away. His right arm and half his shoulder had vanished completely. The stump was charred black, blood constantly gushing from it.

With Lucian having deliberately avoided his vital areas, he was still clinging to life. A soundless roar rose in his throat, and his left hand still tried to prop up his ruined body.

Lucian landed and walked over to Black Noir, blue light shining in his eyes again.

After adjusting its output, he swept his heat vision over Black Noir's wound. The flesh rapidly shrank under the heat, then fused together. The smell of burning flesh filled the air again.

The bleeding stopped.

After all that effort, letting you die would be one hell of a loss. Black Noir only has extraction value alive.

Lucian crouched and pressed his right hand to Black Noir's intact left temple.

LV3 mind control.

Mental tendrils pierced Black Noir's brain.

Fragments of memory flashed past.

So that was it.

Lucian withdrew his hand. The Vought Executives could never fully trust a strategic weapon like Doppelganger, who could turn into anyone. Every time he went out, an assassin of Black Noir's caliber watched him in secret.

At the slightest sign of anything wrong, he would be silenced immediately.

Today, Doppelganger had headed for the outskirts as soon as his event ended. To Black Noir, that was irrefutable evidence of escape. He had followed only to eliminate whoever came to pick him up as well.

Lucian reached out and felt around what remained of Black Noir's left shoulder.

His fingertips touched something hard.

After slicing the flesh open with Black Noir's sharp blade, Lucian pried out a tracking chip.

Lucian stood and raced around the surrounding area. The wind stirred up by his super speed swept the dead leaves off the ground.

A few minutes later, he had cleared a firebreak several kilometers in diameter.

Completely naked, he took out the spare clothes he had left in the cabin beforehand and tossed them aside.

Once everything was done, two-thousand-degree heat erupted in the center of the cabin.

Flames instantly soared into the sky. The cabin, the nearby forest, the remaining traces of battle, and Black Noir's severed limb all turned to ash in the blaze.

Lucian changed into his clothes and collected the few sharp blades that couldn't be burned away. He held the unconscious Doppelganger in one hand and the half-dead Black Noir in the other.

Light Energy Propulsion activated.

Three figures shot into the air, soaring straight into the clouds and speeding toward Miami at the other end of America.

Along the way, he casually tossed the tracking chip into the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

A few hours later.

A rarely visited stretch of primeval forest.

Lucian landed with the two men in front of a secluded cave.

He tossed the two unconscious men in his hands onto the ground.

Black Noir's ruined body struck the loose stones with a dull thud.

Lucian raised his right hand and pressed his palm against Black Noir's bloodstained forehead.

The system panel appeared.

[Supe target detected: Black Noir]

[Available ability 1: Super healing LV3]

[Available ability 2: Super physique LV4]

[Available ability 3: Super strength LV3]

Harvest time had arrived.