Chapter 260: Chapter 260 Claw

Watching his full-strength throw caught one-handed by Alex, Steve’s brow furrowed in surprise.

As a hero of World War II, he had used this move countless times on the battlefield; it was strong enough to cleave through the hull of a tank. To date, no human enemy had ever successfully caught this shield head-on—mostly because the fools who tried ended up dead.

He’s getting stronger.

Despite having outclassed his opponent only moments ago, an ominous feeling began to take root in Steve’s gut.

Alex stopped running. Whether he had simply grown tired of the chase or the thunderous roar of the Quinjet overhead told him there was nowhere left to go, he stood his ground. He held the shield up, examining it and even rapping his knuckles against the surface, seemingly curious about what kind of metal could be this indestructible.

“Here! Have it back!”

After a brief inspection, Alex wound back his arm and hurled the shield with violent force.

Steve had anticipated the counter-attack. He planted his feet, reaching out with both hands to brace for the impact. But then, a thought struck him: Alex had caught it with one hand.

CLANG!

The sharp ring of metal echoed as he caught the shield dead center. He didn’t yield an inch.

“Heh…” Alex let out a low, amused huff.

The night was long, and the moon hung high. On the rooftops of two towering buildings, two men stood facing each other, surrounded by an invisible net of agents and SWAT teams.

“Well now,” Jason sat on the edge of a neighboring roof, cradling a steaming cup of coffee. “Better to be lucky than on time. This is getting good.”

“With me here, you aren’t escaping tonight!” Steve issued his formal declaration of war.

“Escape?” Alex licked his lips with a crimson tongue, his confidence bolstered by his recent feast. “I was thinking of consuming you instead.”

Steve tightened his grip on the shield and dropped into a combat stance. “Then come and try!”

He exploded into a sprint, launching himself from the edge of the roof and soaring across the ten-meter gap between the buildings. Seeing the move, Alex lunged forward to intercept. He planned to catch Steve mid-air, while he was weightless and unable to maneuver, and knock him clean off the building with a heavy punch.

It was a solid plan, but he was fighting Captain America. In terms of raw combat experience and technique, Steve had no human equal.

Steve instantly angled his shield, putting his entire body weight behind it.

KABOAM!

Fist met metal with a deafening resonance. After a split second of static friction, Steve’s momentum, mass, and the shield’s kinetic-absorption properties won out. With a sickening crunch, Alex’s arm shattered. The remaining force sent him tumbling back over a dozen meters.

The moment he hit the ground, Alex bounced back up, his biomass already frantically knitting his right arm back together. But Steve, a master of the follow-through, didn’t give him a second to breathe. The moment Alex looked up, a massive fist was already descending on his face.

Alex ducked frantically and thrust his left arm toward Steve’s gut. Steve’s reflexes were faster; he caught the arm with his left hand and, in one fluid motion, delivered a knee strike that snapped Alex’s elbow in the opposite direction.

With both arms useless, Alex was effectively defenseless. But Steve didn’t stop. He swept Alex’s legs, slamming him into the concrete. Using the edge of his shield, he delivered two rapid, heavy strikes—thwack, thwack—cleaving through the bone of both of Alex’s legs.

Just like that, Alex was grounded.

The observing agents let out a collective breath of awe. From start to finish, the fight had lasted less than ten seconds. While not as immediate as the previous one-shot, the terrifying efficiency of Captain America left them shaken.

How long has it been? Since the Joker Organization rose to power, the government hadn’t tasted a victory this clean. The name Captain America was officially back.

On the nearby terrace, Jason blew the steam off his coffee and nodded in approval. “In terms of technique, he really is the ceiling for a human. Pity… he’s still just a human.”

Alex lay in a pool of his own blood, gasping for air. Steve stood over him, shield raised, eyes vigilant. If Alex so much as twitched toward an escape or tried to regenerate a limb, Steve was ready to take it off again.

Despite the easy victory, Steve was disturbed by the speed of the boy’s growth. “You’re nearly twice as strong as you were an hour ago. You monster… how many people did you devour?”

Alex grinned, his eyes mocking. “Do you remember how many pieces of bread you’ve eaten in your life?”

The cold, callous disregard for human life hit Steve like a physical blow. This creature was too dangerous to be allowed to grow. He had to end it.

Veins bulging in his neck, Steve raised the shield high with both hands, aiming a terminal blow at Alex’s head.

“Captain! Stop!”

A frantic shout erupted in his earpiece. Steve froze, the edge of the shield less than ten centimeters from Alex’s throat.

“Captain, do not kill him!” The agent pleaded. “We need him alive. He’s too valuable for research.”

Steve understood the logic. A living meta-human was a gold mine for government scientists. But when he thought of the victims—the innocent bystanders, Agent Coulson—he felt a bitter injustice.

“So his victims just don’t matter?”

“Don’t worry, Cap,” The agent consoled him quickly. “I promise you, he’ll wish he was dead. Once we’ve extracted everything we can from him, he’ll answer for the lives he took.”

It was a bureaucratic non-answer. Who knew when his value would run out? Steve was frustrated, but he lowered the shield. He was a soldier, not a judge. He didn’t have the rank to argue with the brass. Perhaps that was the soldier’s greatest tragedy.

“I won’t kill you tonight,” Steve spat. “But you can plan on spending the rest of your life in a cage.”

Alex chuckled. “Captain… I told you. I’m going to consume you.”

Snap!

From the darkness of his mangled torso, several writhing tendrils lashed out like striking vipers. Steve dodged sideways and, with lightning speed, reached out and grabbed the bundle of veins in his bare hand.

“This is how you do it, isn’t it?” Steve’s rage flared again. He yanked the tendrils with all his might, intending to rip them out of Alex’s body.

“Haha… you fell for it,” Alex smirked.

The writhing veins suddenly hardened into rigid cables. Steve’s violent tug didn’t rip them out—it acted as a tether, pulling Alex’s entire body off the ground. As he flew toward Steve, Alex intentionally severed the connection, using the momentum to fling himself onto the roof of the adjacent building.

As he tumbled, a massive surge of biomass erupted from his core, encasing him in a cocoon of red flesh. Steve realized he’d been played and sprinted toward the gap, hoping to finish the job before the regeneration completed.

“Too slow!”

Alex’s healing factor was accelerating. By the time Steve cleared the jump, Alex’s limbs were fully restored.

“I lost the first two rounds,” Alex rasped, standing tall. “For the third, let’s try something fun!”

The biomass used to fix his limbs didn’t retreat; it flowed into his fists. Within seconds, the red flesh hardened and peeled back to reveal three curved, serrated blades protruding from each of his knuckles.

Steve skidded to a halt, his face a mix of confusion and alarm. Seeing his bewilderment, Alex offered a mock explanation.

“New trick I picked up after dinner. I call it… Claw Mode.”

With a roar, he swung his arms and charged. Steve shifted his feet, bringing the shield up just in time.

CLANG!

In the dead of night, claws met vibranium, sending a spray of brilliant sparks into the air.

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