Watching Richard eliminate the water-based Hunter so effortlessly, Shaw's expression darkened visibly.
The fight had begun barely two minutes ago.
In that short span, Riptide was dead. No. 7 was gone. No. 8 had shattered into ice fragments drifting across the bay.
If Riptide had fallen easily, Shaw could accept it. Janos lacked mind isolation. He had no psychic helmet. Against someone with Richard's level of telepathy, immobilization was inevitable.
But No. 7 and No. 8 were different.
They were supposed to be the pinnacle.
Enhanced clones. Optimized. Upgraded.
And yet, in front of Richard, they had performed no better than disposable soldiers.
Especially No. 8.
That display had been embarrassing.
The water-form had immunity to conventional slashing. It should have bought time. It should have forced adaptation.
Instead, it demonstrated its abilities directly in front of a man who had publicly shown freezing powers.
It had handed Richard the solution.
Shaw didn't need to speak. His expression said everything.
If Richard had been in his position, he would have been furious.
The resources required to produce these Hunters were not trivial. The Mutant Affairs Department did not mass-produce them casually. That alone revealed the cost.
Richard landed lightly on the dock, wind spiraling down around him like a settling cloak.
"Knowing how to shoot doesn't make someone a soldier," he said calmly.
"When you created them, you shouldn't have stripped away their emotions."
Shaw's eyes narrowed.
"Emotions are messy," Richard continued. "Unpredictable. Hard to control."
"But without them, you don't have humans. You have walking corpses."
When he had first sensed the Magneto clone and the enhanced units—especially their mind isolation—he had prepared for a brutal engagement.
Instead, he'd found something incomplete.
On paper, the Hunters were impressive. Elemental control. Magnetic mastery. Psychic shielding.
In practice, their flaws were obvious.
No emotional drive.
Limited autonomy.
Minimal tactical creativity.
They acted on command.
Nothing more.
Worse, they lacked experience.
Three months. At most.
Three months was enough to teach someone how to fire a weapon.
It was not enough to teach them how to survive.
X-24 came to mind.
Peak physical condition. Superior strength. Superior durability.
And yet it had lost to an aging Wolverine and a child.
Absolute advantage meant nothing without adaptability.
No. 8 had options.
He could have submerged. Controlled the ocean at range. Dragged Richard into attritional combat.
Instead, he engaged directly.
And died instantly.
Shaw remained silent for over ten seconds.
He understood the trade-off. The Mutant Affairs Department had insisted on emotional restriction.
Weapons did not need feelings.
Weapons needed obedience.
He had agreed.
"Leave," Shaw said finally.
"I'll pretend tonight never happened."
The words were controlled, but beneath them was suppressed rage.
Richard had killed three core assets.
Destroyed his yacht.
Publicly humiliated him with Emma.
Under normal circumstances, Shaw would never allow such insult to stand.
But Richard was not normal.
There was no guarantee of victory.
Even with the Magneto clone.
Richard smiled faintly.
"You wanted to kill me five minutes ago. Changed your mind quickly."
He had no personal grudge against Shaw.
But the moment the system issued the mission—rescue Wanda and Pietro—Shaw had entered the must-kill category.
Energy absorption alone made him valuable.
"Do you really want war with the Hellfire Club?" Shaw asked, voice colder now.
"Don't waste time," Richard replied. "You've absorbed plenty of energy."
He twirled Masamune once, then leveled the blade at Shaw.
"Show me what the Black King can actually do."
Shaw stopped attempting negotiation.
He stepped forward.
At first, his pace resembled a casual walk.
Then it accelerated.
From walk to run.
From run to blur.
By the time he closed the distance, his speed rivaled a cheetah at full sprint.
He launched a punch without hesitation.
Technically, it wasn't elegant. His stance resembled an amateur boxer.
But power made up for refinement.
The kinetic output behind that fist was monstrous.
It was less a punch than a projectile.
For a split second, the fist filled Richard's vision.
Then he vanished.
Mind transmission.
He reappeared behind Shaw.
Masamune swept horizontally toward the back of Shaw's neck.
The blade connected.
And stopped.
Energy rippled violently across Shaw's skin.
The absorbed magnetic and kinetic reserves reinforced his body like living armor.
The slash did not cut through.
It bit shallowly, drawing a thin line of blood before the energy field flared and repelled the blade.
Shaw spun instantly, elbow lashing backward with explosive force.
Richard crossed his forearm to block.
The impact detonated like a small artillery shell.
The dock cracked beneath their feet.
Metal railings twisted.
Richard slid back several meters, boots carving twin trenches into the dock surface.
Shaw did not pause.
He followed through with a second strike, this time channeling stored magnetic energy into a compressed shockwave.
Richard teleported again, reappearing midair.
The shockwave obliterated a section of dock where he had stood.
Shaw looked up.
"Teleport as much as you want," he said evenly. "Eventually you'll make a mistake."
Richard hovered, assessing.
Energy saturation was significant.
The Magneto clone remained below, maintaining magnetic support.
That was the core problem.
Shaw was charging continuously.
Cut the supply.
Richard descended abruptly, feinting toward Shaw.
At the last moment, he pivoted and flashed toward the Magneto clone instead.
Masamune came down vertically.
The clone reacted instantly, raising a magnetic barrier that compressed surrounding metal into layered shielding.
The blade struck.
The barrier buckled but held.
Before Richard could follow up, Shaw slammed into him from the side like a missile.
They crashed through a remaining section of dock into open water.
Richard stabilized midair before impact, but Shaw used the ocean surface as leverage, launching upward again.
He had learned.
He was adapting.
Good.
Richard raised his hand.
Heat Vision activated.
Twin beams lanced downward toward the Magneto clone.
The clone redirected surrounding metal fragments into a rotating shield, but the concentrated thermal output began melting through the outer layer.
Shaw intercepted, absorbing the heat mid-flight.
Energy flared brighter around him.
He grinned slightly.
"Thank you."
Richard cut the beams immediately.
Feeding Shaw was pointless.
He shifted tactics.
Air Bullet.
Compressed blasts detonated around the Magneto clone's feet, disrupting stance and magnetic concentration.
At the same time, Gravity Restraint activated.
For a fraction of a second, local gravitational force intensified.
The clone's magnetic field flickered.
That was enough.
Masamune flashed again.
This time, the blade angled precisely at the clone's exposed shoulder joint.
The strike penetrated.
Not deeply—but enough.
Blood splattered across twisted steel.
The clone staggered.
Shaw roared and drove both fists downward.
Richard teleported upward again.
The dock beneath Shaw imploded completely.
Debris rained into the ocean.
Night air thickened with heat, steam, and ozone.
Richard floated higher, assessing both targets.
Shaw was stronger now than at the beginning.
But he was burning energy rapidly.
The Magneto clone was wounded.
Not fatal.
But not insignificant.
Richard exhaled slowly.
"So," he murmured.
"Now we're getting somewhere."
.....
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