Alex had long since been marked as a high-level threat by the Hellfire Club. Even while locked in battle with others, not a single member of the Club dared take their eyes off him.
Everyone was watching his every move.
So the moment Alex made his move, Windman didn't dare let his guard down.
He instantly abandoned Erik and leapt sideways, narrowly dodging Alex's heat vision in the nick of time.
Zzzzt!
Twin beams of searing heat scorched the beach where Windman had just stood, blasting two deep pits into the sand.
Whoosh!
Alex continued to pursue, heat vision blazing. But Windman suddenly swept his hand forward, summoning a fierce gust of wind that kicked up a massive sandstorm in front of him.
In an instant, his figure was swallowed by a wall of swirling sand.
It was a clever move.
After all, if the enemy can't see you, it doesn't matter how strong their beams are — they can't hit what they can't target.
Unfortunately for Windman and the rest of the Hellfire Club, they had no idea what Alex was really capable of.
To the Club's members, the sandstorm seemed like an effective smokescreen that could neutralize Alex's heat vision. But to Alex, it was little more than a minor inconvenience.
That's right.
Just a minor one.
Because he activated his X-ray vision and instantly pierced through the dust cloud, locking onto Windman's exact position.
Not only that — his super-hearing also picked up on Windman's heartbeat.
That towering wall of sand that could blind any normal opponent?
Completely useless against Alex.
Zzzzt!
His heat vision swept out again, adjusting its trajectory to continue tracking Windman's position.
But just then—
Alex's lips curled into a cold smirk. His right hand suddenly lashed out to the side — grasping seemingly at empty air.
"Ugh!"
A grunt rang out.
The air shimmered and twisted, and a figure slowly materialized in Alex's grip — a previously unseen mutant!
An invisible man with the power of stealth, who had been hiding in the chaos, waiting for the perfect moment to land a fatal blow on Alex.
In his hand was a short blade — not just any knife, but one forged from a special alloy designed to pierce steel with ease.
A weapon meant to kill Alex.
This invisible mutant was a trump card — a hidden assassin that Sebastian Shaw had prepared specifically to deal with Alex.
Too bad for him, no one told Shaw that Alex also had super-hearing.
From the moment the battle began, Alex knew there were five mutants on the field, not four.
He'd heard the assassin's heartbeat from the start.
The invisible man had crept closer under cover of battle, silent as a shadow — but Alex had been tracking him the entire time, as clearly as if watching on a surveillance monitor.
"What… how?!"
"You actually found me?!"
The invisible man's face twisted in disbelief. In such a chaotic battlefield, how could anyone possibly detect him?
He hadn't made a single misstep.
Crack!
But he would never find the answer. Alex clenched his hand and snapped the man's neck like a twig.
Then he casually flung the body aside like tossing out the trash.
Without missing a beat, he turned back around.
Zzzzt!
Twin beams of heat tore through the still-spinning sandstorm, blasting straight into it.
Boom!
Inside the cloud, Windman was struck as if by lightning, sent flying through the air before crashing to the ground, unmoving.
The howling winds immediately died down.
His unconscious — possibly dead — body lay exposed before everyone.
And beside Alex, the corpse of a stranger had also appeared.
Every Hellfire Club member's heart skipped a beat.
They had barely begun exchanging blows, and two of their comrades were already down?
Even Winston — Shaw's special hire to deal with the young man — was dead?
The intel was wrong.
That man was far more terrifying than the reports suggested.
"Nicely done, Alex!" Erik shouted with elation.
The rest of the X-Men were shocked and overjoyed. Their morale soared.
In contrast, their enemies felt a mounting pressure.
With Windman eliminated and the others being stalled by the team, Erik encountered no further obstacles. He surged forward and ripped a hole in the side of the submarine with his powers, striding in like he owned the place.
Meanwhile, Alex advanced toward the remaining Hellfire Club mutants.
They instantly felt their nerves tighten — dread gripping their hearts.
"Rrahh!"
The bald man let out a furious roar and hurled a "Hulk Smash" attack at Alex.
BOOM! BOOM!
Twin waves of water exploded from the sea behind him, crashing toward Alex with immense force.
But unfortunately for them, Alex now possessed a body of true steel.
This level of attack wasn't even worth his attention.
Boom!
Alex stomped the ground, launching himself like a cannonball straight into the crashing waves.
SPLASH!
The next second, a spray of water burst forth as Alex shot out from the far side of the wave, slamming down in front of the bald man like a meteor.
The man's expression changed dramatically. That shockwave had enough power to flip a car, and yet it had done nothing to this monster.
He had taken it head-on — with his bare body.
Shaw's intel hadn't been wrong. This guy's physique was inhumanly strong!
Bang!
Just as the thought crossed his mind, something struck him with immense force — launching him into the air.
Crack!
The sound of bones breaking echoed.
"So fast…"
That was the last thought in his mind.
Before he could even react, Alex left behind a blur of motion and vanished from view.
The next thing he knew — he was flying.
And then… nothing.
Darkness claimed him.
He never even noticed his own body crashing to the ground like a ragdoll.
Gulp!
Braidsman swallowed hard, cold sweat dripping down his back.
All of his comrades — except for Nicholas, who was still flying somewhere in the sky — had been wiped out in an instant.
He was the only one left standing.
This guy… was way scarier than the legends made him out to be!
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