----
Suddenly, Elektra pointed toward Nolan and Max from across the rooftops.
In the next moment, several ninja-like silhouettes leaped silently through the moonlight, landing behind them with barely a sound.
The steel of drawn katanas gleamed ominously beneath the pale moon.
Max instantly turned, placing himself between Nolan and the incoming assassins. Blue electricity rippled across his body.
"Well damn… instead of dealing with Iron Fist or the Sanctum Order, they come after me first?" Nolan scoffed. "You really are asking for death."
"Max," Nolan said coolly, "leave one alive. I want to bring it back for study."
"Understood."
Max shot forward in a blur of electric blue.
The ninjas barely had time to register his presence before their vision was engulfed in blinding arcs of light.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
Electricity exploded across the rooftop, sparking violently as shrieks of pain echoed into the night.
The smell of scorched flesh and burnt leather filled the air.
After charging up, Max's strength and speed spiked drastically. Though he couldn't yet travel through power lines or fully become lightning, his mobility far outmatched these trained killers.
Their weapons, however, well-forged, couldn't even scratch him.
In a matter of seconds, all that remained on the rooftop were twitching corpses, most reduced to smoking husks. One lone ninja writhed on the ground, still alive.
"Cleaned up, boss," Max said, returning to Nolan's side.
"Good work," Nolan nodded. "You're getting the hang of your powers."
"All thanks to your training regimen."
Nolan's gaze swept back toward Elektra.
The battle had erupted in full.
Hand ninjas clashed with members of the Sanctum Order and Iron Fist. Arrows whistled, explosions lit up the skyline, and even bursts of fire shot through the chaos clearly, the Sanctum Order wasn't limited to mere martial arts.
As for Iron Fist?
He fought like a street brawler but his body was tougher than steel. He took blows head-on, powered by the inner chi that made him nearly impervious to weapons.
"Target Iron Fist," Nolan ordered. "The big guy. I'll handle the other two."
Max didn't hesitate. He didn't care who the man was. If his boss pointed, he'd move.
That's what his mother had taught him loyalty and gratitude above all.
Then Nolan moved.
BOOM!
The stone ledge under his foot shattered, and he launched forward like a cannonball.
In the blink of an eye, he was airborne.
"INCOMING!" Elektra called out, instantly sensing the danger.
But it was too late.
Before the Hand's ninja reinforcements could react, Nolan had already grabbed Elektra by the throat and hoisted her into the air.
Viper, standing nearby, erupted in clouds of green toxin her form vanishing in a cloud of venomous mist.
"Running away?" Nolan smirked, floating above the ground with Elektra in hand.
He shot forward like a missile, slicing through the toxic fog, and seized Viper from behind by the nape of her neck.
Viper twisted unnaturally, her spine contorting like a serpent's. "Didn't expect you to be this strong," she hissed.
Suddenly, Nolan winced pain shooting up his arm. Black venom had begun spreading from his hand toward his shoulder.
But then his body forced the toxin out in thick black streams.
"Interesting… you remind me of someone I once knew," Nolan muttered, unfazed.
Viper didn't panic. She just smiled.
And then Nolan noticed it her skin felt slick, her neck shedding layers like a snake.
She was molting.
A green flash burst from her collapsing body.
From within, a spectral crown glowing and serpentine rose into the air, then vanished in a streak of green light.
"She had… the Crown of Serpents?" Nolan narrowed his eyes.
Her body, once warm and alive, went limp and cold. Viper was dead.
But her essence, her soul, had been taken.
The crown must've been the source of her power, a conduit of the ancient chaos god Set. Like a totem or artifact, it granted divine might.
Earth, as usual, was a magnet for cosmic anomalies. And it wasn't just the MCU anymore this world was a hybrid of comics, film, and TV canon.
That crown was very real… and now it was gone.
"One target down," Nolan muttered.
Still, the encounter wasn't a total loss he'd learned something valuable about Viper.
And she wouldn't be returning anytime soon. By the time she did, he would be even stronger.
He looked at the other in his grasp.
Elektra.
"Wanna try escaping too?"
She didn't answer not because she wouldn't but because she couldn't.
Nolan's grip around her throat was unyielding. She couldn't breathe, let alone speak.
The Hand ninjas who had been locked in combat turned at once, charging toward their captured leader.
That's when Elektra's body began to shift.
Black mist began leaking from her skin her body absorbing the Beast's energy. Her strength surged. The darkness spread outward not just enhancing her, but her followers too.
Each ninja who inhaled the mist became faster, stronger, and more violent.
"Now this… is interesting," Nolan whispered.
His brief frustration over Viper's escape vanished.
So Elektra really was the vessel for the Beast…
A perfect subject for mystical research.
He looked at the charging ninjas.
Still holding Elektra in one hand, he blurred forward with terrifying speed.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Bodies exploded like overripe fruit shattered mid-sprint.
His enhanced senses and spider reflexes made dodging impossible. The ninjas, even empowered by dark chi, were insects to him.
Their broken bodies rained down on the streets below like sacks of wet meat.
"Impossible…" whispered a Chaste member, eyes wide in horror.
"How can a human be this powerful?"
Nolan didn't use chi. He didn't use magic. He wasn't relying on sacred weapons or training from monks.
Just a raw, unstoppable force.
Speed. Strength. Precision.
He was no longer just a man.
He was a force of nature.
----
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