chapter 7 : Sparring Combat

A few days later Damien investigated the bomb case and found the culprit quite quickly. Lucas went to flush him out and was surprised because it was one of the teachers from his high school.

 This sick man even tried to blow himself up at the same time as a good part of the city but first, he tried to explain his reasons to Lucas who immediately grabbed the professor at high speed and threw him into the space where it exploded.

 Today, Lucas was in Eastern Europe where he took down a massive drug business when Cecil called him saying that a dragon was attacking Naples and Nolan wasn't answering the calls, the military forces were trying to take push it back but in vain. He rushed straight towards Naples.

 After flying at maximum speed, he arrived there and spotted the large reptile. The dragon was that of Asian mythologies, its body was long, it had green scales, a yellow crest and black horns.

 Lucas flew straight towards the dragon and when the dragon saw him, he started gathering flames in his mouth.

 The beast immediately spit fire, imagining Lucas burning when all of a sudden...

 *BAM*

 He felt something hit him extremely hard on the top of his head, the pain was incredible, excruciating even.

 it was Lucas who had dodged the flames the very second the dragon had attacked, for some reason it really hurt where Lucas had hit him.

 "Something told me that this particular spot on a dragon's skull was fragile and apparently I wasn't wrong!!" Lucas muttered after attacking this specific place, he felt like he had already faced hundreds of dragons before and his Instinct had not lied to him because the dragon bones on this part of the skull were thinner (Thank you Clarion) . 

 Before the dragon could really react, Lucas attacked once again with much more force and the dragon collapsed in pain, he concentrated flames in his mouth and as he spit them out, Lucas appeared just below his jaw and with a violent uppercut, he closed his mouth.

 *BRAOUUUMM*

 "GROUUUUUUUUUAH !!!" The dragon roared in anger as blood flowed in large quantities from its mouth and flames licked at its damaged flesh. While the dragon was screaming, Lucas disappeared again, he was 50 meters above the dragon and in a second, he came down like a meteor at high speed and with an explosive sound, he crashed into the place where he had already hit the dragon's head before.

 *SPRLAAARGGHT*

 There was a lot of smoke and the dragon was no longer moving, a large part of its head had exploded and there was only blood, bones, pieces of flesh and brains.

 The people around who were initially terrified by the dragon came near the carcass to start clapping and among them, Lucas recognized two individuals who were Nolan and Debbie .

 After seeing them, Lucas quickly left, after he left, the dragon's body shook before shrinking and turning into the corpse of a headless man like the dragon was.

 Filled with fear, people were shocked at this spectacle.

 " My God ! Nolan this dragon was actually a human being! That means Lucas just killed someone in front of us!" Debbie said fearfully.

 "Hmm! Lucas has his way of neutralizing dangers and I think he's right, this guy was dangerous and threatened the lives of several civilians!" Nolan said appreciatively. They were talking and were going to go back to their restaurant when, turning around, they saw Lucas looking at them.

 Lucas: Hello mom, hello Nolan. It looks like you're having a good time!

 Deborah : Hello baby, your f…Nolan and I have taken a bit of a vacation since Mark went to Mars.

 Nolan: By the way, well done with the dragon earlier! Usually it takes me longer to fight him but you did it faster! Have you ever fought one before?!

 Lucas: No, he's the first! I just moved on instinct as usual!

 They invited him to eat with them and chatted quietly, since Lucas had left the house he felt better and more relaxed to the point of even sitting down and chatting with Nolan as long as there were no parental allusions .

 Deborah : I really liked your gesture for Africa even if I find the method quite violent but the results are starting to be felt.

 "I hate corruption, it's such a rich continent but with such a poor population. These people deserve better leaders and in the case of poaching or illegal hunting I have already identified many of my future victims." Lucas said before eating.

 Nolan: Tsk! These are trivial things, you should worry about bigger things. Leave that to others.

 Lucas: You have your things and I have mine, it's not up to you to judge whether they are futile or not. I'm not criticizing your activities so be nice and don't criticize mine.

 Nolan: (Frowns)

 Deborah : Ahem! Did you finally find yourself a girl friend ? Mark told me there's a girl you're really into.

 Lucas: Um, Amber ? She's just a friend, that sort of thing doesn't interest me at the moment and a woman in my life now is only going to clutter my actions. I don't want to have to manage complicated schedules because of her or have to explain my absence when I went to save the world.

 Deborah : That's what your mouth is saying at the moment but I'm sure you'll also get closer to her faster than you think. You have lots of qualities my darling but emotionally you still have a lot to learn, no one is safe.

 Lucas: If you say so, mom.

 Lucas and them talked a little more before he left. During the next few days, Lucas continued to cleanse Africa of its human rot.

 Some personalities tried to fight him by hiring villains or super-mercenaries but Lucas massacred them all, he killed them all.

 Mark and Eve returned from Mars a week later, it was not that their stay on Mars was long but it was the duration of the trip that was very long.

 Lucas helped them catch up on their lessons and even made them suggestions that Eve really liked.

 Thanks to Eve's atomic and molecular manipulation, Lucas offered her ecological solutions.

 First, Create a few gigantic trees in forests around the world to absorb CO2 in the air and release more oxygen to slow pollution.

 He and Mark would create furrows for new rivers in arid places while Eve would change the structure of the soil to make it more fertile and accelerate plant growth.

 Initially, there were three of them but several other heroes with good intentions capable of managing the elements came to help them and Lucas abandoned the project in the hands of Mark and Eve, other activities for their couple.

 Weeks passed and Lucas found himself facing Mark in the air in Antarctica. It was a close combat training session requested by Mark himself who wanted to compare his strength to that of his younger brother and Nolan was also present because he was very curious to see the result, neither he nor Debbie was at running from their son's monstrous instincts, all Nolan knew was that Lucas was more talented than Mark.

 Another thing terribly that none of them knew was that Lucas even without his close combat skills was already physically much stronger than Mark. For what ?! Because of his illness.

 Viltrumites have two known ways of becoming stronger, the first is by aging because like certain vampire races, the older they get the stronger they are.

The second way they became stronger was to surpass their limits either in a perilous situation or in an extremely harsh environment.

 Lucas' illness had made his body stronger without everyone knowing because with each of his attacks, the latter fought for its survival at the cost of great efforts but above all an iron will.

But what's more, the syndrome he suffered from destroyed and caused his cells to reproduce almost constantly. The process was so fast that it wasn't even visible but it put pressure on his body all the time.

 Lucas: Are you sure this is what you want?!

 Mark: Yes, I need to know the gap between us, it's just out of curiosity.

 Lucas: Did Nolan give you this idea?!

 Mark: A little yes but it also comes from me, we never trained together and you are my brother.

 Lucas: (Sighs) Okay Mark, you're right. We should train together more often although I still think Nolan would be more than up to the task.

 "Be ready little brother, I'm coming" Mark flew at high speed towards Lucas preparing a punch using the flight as momentum.

The moment he reached Lucas, he threw his punch which Lucas fluidly deflected inwards not by force but by using Mark's own arm movement before punching him. countering with an uppercut that sent Mark flying vertically with a trail of blood.

 This result left Lucas perplexed because he had not put a lot of force into this shot, aware that it was only a small practice match.

 Mark steadied himself higher and grabbed the lower part of his now sore jaw as he looked at his brother with some anger.

 Mark: Dude are you serious?!

 Lucas: Sorry Mark, I could have sworn I didn't put too much force into my punch, I'll be more careful now. Sorry !

 Nolan: You don't need to apologize Lucas, your brother needs this to evolve, your combat skills are obviously better than his in combat.

 "He took me by surprise." Mark said as he flew towards Lucas again to throw a series of punches which Lucas dodged with insolent ease before interrupting his brother's assault by parrying one of his punches before following up with a lock arm "Sinking Python" before giving him a knee strike which caused a lot of pain to Mark and while he was paralyzed by pain, Lucas sent a "tornado kick" to his head but in the direction of down, which threw Mark into the ice beneath them, shattering it into cobweb-like cracks.

 Lucas calmly landed on the ground next to his brother and looked at him as his brother lay holding his stomach.

 "Damn Lucas I thought you said take it easy damn it!!" Mark asked with a pain filled expression.

 Lucas: You can believe me Mark, I took it easy. It was a practice fight and sometimes fights can end in a flash with a mistake from one of the two opponents and you make a lot of mistakes Mark. If you want I could teach you some techniques and some tips.

 Nolan came down with a face full of excitement as he looked at Lucas. He was shocked by the composure and dexterity shown by Lucas during this exchange, he saw his son's immense talent in combat and it made him a little agitated.

 Nolan: Magnificent Lucas!! You would make an exceptional warrior as a Viltrumite!! Where did you learn to fight like that?!

 Lucs: I don't want anything to do with Viltrum, it's not my planet. These techniques I learned by watching films and tutorials, no one taught them to me correctly and I use my Instinct to execute them in the right way and at the right timing.

 Nolan: Prodigious! Come, show me what you can do, I know you didn't give anything in front of your brother.

 Lucas: No thanks, it's cool to propose to you but I'm not interested.

 Nolan: What, are you scared?!

 Lucas: Provoking me won't do any good, I don't want anything to do with you, that's all. Mark on the other hand has a lot to learn from you I'm sure with all your experience, I'm sure that if you deal with him well he will very quickly be someone strong with his talent despite his haste. I think-(interrupted)

 He was cut off in his words by Cecil who had just offered him a certain mission and he immediately rushed off after saying goodbye to Mark and Nolan.

 Days later, because he dealt with people's social problems as well instead of just fighting supervillains, Lucas's popularity was extremely good despite his violent methods. However, he had made a most surprising discovery, Saeko had powers.