The moment the nail-shaped bullet screamed toward him, Ethan Blake's telekinetic barrier snapped into existence. A translucent layer of force expanded outward, forming a protective sphere roughly one meter around his body. Even so, Ethan's brows drew together slightly when the projectile pushed through the field far deeper than expected before finally freezing in place.
The bullet had penetrated almost fifty centimeters into the barrier before his telekinesis completely locked it in midair. That result alone was enough to make him reconsider the situation.
Telekinesis was an incredibly versatile power. In practice it functioned almost like an extension of Ethan's own body, able to push, pull, crush, or shield with little more than a thought. It was simple, brutally effective, and extremely flexible. Still, Ethan knew very well that his current level wasn't anywhere near the monstrous psychic strength of someone like Tatsumaki from One Punch Man.
At full power, that esper could casually erase an entire city with her psychic force. Ethan, by comparison, could probably flatten a single building if he pushed himself.
His current telekinetic strength topped out at roughly five hundred tons. He had tested it repeatedly since gaining the ability. When he focused purely on defense, the barrier he created had roughly the same hardness as a thick steel plate. If he divided his attention between offense and defense, the durability dropped noticeably.
Which made the bullet in front of him particularly concerning.
A projectile capable of punching fifty centimeters into his barrier meant it could easily pierce a steel plate of similar thickness. That kind of ammunition was far from ordinary. Ethan stared at the suspended nail-like slug and silently reassessed his assumptions.
S.H.I.E.L.D clearly had more dangerous toys than he had initially expected.
Even so, he felt no panic at all.
Thanks to his Observation Haki, Ethan could sense danger long before it arrived. Even if a situation turned truly bad, he still had plenty of ways to escape. And if things became desperate, he wasn't exactly short on hidden cards either.
Before he could think further, a second wave of attacks arrived.
Several smoke grenades exploded around him in rapid succession. Thick gray clouds billowed outward, swallowing the corridor in seconds.
Ethan maintained his telekinetic barrier without hesitation, keeping the swirling smoke at a safe distance. He had no idea whether the gas contained toxins, sedatives, or something worse, so allowing it to touch him was simply not an option.
Although the smoke couldn't reach him physically, it completely blocked his line of sight.
Ethan understood the attackers' strategy immediately.
Blind the target.
Without visual confirmation of their enemies, even someone with telekinetic powers would struggle to launch accurate counterattacks. Meanwhile the ambushers would still be able to track him perfectly.
After all, this was S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters. Thermal imaging goggles were practically the most basic equipment available to their agents, and the versions used here were undoubtedly the most advanced models in existence.
The attackers clearly believed they had created the perfect advantage.
Unfortunately for them, they had misunderstood their opponent.
Losing his vision did cause Ethan a small amount of inconvenience, but that was all it was—an inconvenience. With a quiet exhale, he simply closed his eyes.
Observation Haki erupted outward.
In an instant his perception expanded like a ripple spreading across water. Using his own body as the center point, Ethan sensed everything within a five-hundred-meter spherical radius.
Every movement.
Every heartbeat.
Every hostile intention.
Within that invisible sphere, the positions of fifteen separate individuals appeared in his mind with perfect clarity. They were approaching slowly from three different directions, attempting to surround him.
Ethan almost laughed.
So they wanted to play cat and mouse.
In that case, he would gladly see who the real predator was.
His telekinesis surged outward.
Ethan's control over his psychic power was as refined as his mastery of Observation Haki. Within five hundred meters his precision remained extremely high. Beyond that range the accuracy began to decrease, and the force weakened slightly, although he could still extend his influence several kilometers if necessary.
But the attackers were nowhere near that far away.
All fifteen of them were within one hundred meters.
Which meant their lives were already completely in Ethan's hands.
If they had been ordinary S.H.I.E.L.D agents like Phil Coulson, Ethan might have shown some restraint. He wasn't someone who enjoyed killing for its own sake. Against enemies who were merely doing their jobs, he would usually settle for knocking them unconscious.
But the men surrounding him were different.
These people were almost certainly members of HYDRA.
In Ethan's personal moral framework, the equation was very simple. HYDRA equaled villains. Villains who had committed countless crimes and atrocities.
And right now they were actively trying to kill him.
That combination left no room for hesitation.
With a single thought, Ethan's telekinesis struck.
Invisible force wrapped around fourteen throats at once and tightened violently. There was no dramatic struggle, no drawn-out battle. Fourteen necks snapped simultaneously with dull cracking sounds that echoed faintly through the smoke.
The bodies collapsed before they even understood what had happened.
Ethan glanced at the faint blue interface only he could see. The progress bar for summoning energy had increased slightly.
Three percent.
He clicked his tongue in mild disappointment.
"You're HYDRA," he muttered under his breath. "Couldn't you people commit a few more crimes before showing up?"
Divided among fourteen people, that meant each one had only contributed the equivalent of two innocent lives' worth of sin. From Ethan's perspective, that was practically pocket change.
"Seriously. Useless," he muttered.
With another casual motion of his mind, telekinesis wrapped around the final remaining attacker and yanked him forward through the smoke.
The man crashed heavily onto the floor in front of Ethan, his body pinned by an invisible force. Even without opening his eyes, Ethan knew exactly who stood before him.
"Tell me something," Ethan said calmly. "Where is Alexander Pierce right now?"
The man's response came in the form of a glob of spit launched directly at Ethan's face.
Ethan didn't even move.
The saliva froze in midair, halted by a thin layer of telekinetic force before it could get anywhere near him.
"So that's how it is," Ethan said with a faint frown. "No cooperation."
He considered his options for a moment. There were ways to force information out of someone, of course. Ethan even possessed a special prop from the Doraemon world that could compel absolute honesty.
But after thinking it through, he decided it wasn't worth using.
He had already infiltrated the building. With the tracking compass he carried, finding Pierce would only take a little more time. Wasting a rare tool here felt unnecessary.
The decision made itself.
Ethan's thoughts shifted slightly, and the man's throat crushed inward with a sickening crack.
For a moment, silence filled the corridor.
Then the summoning interface flickered again.
This time the energy bar surged upward dramatically.
Fifteen percent.
Ethan's eyebrows lifted in mild surprise.
"Well now," he murmured.
He studied the corpse lying at his feet more carefully. The man's face seemed strangely familiar. After a moment of thought, the memory clicked into place.
Crossbones.
HYDRA's number-one enforcer inside S.H.I.E.L.D.
"No wonder," Ethan said quietly.
Eliminating someone like that naturally produced far more energy than killing ordinary operatives.
The building's ventilation system slowly began clearing the smoke. Within minutes the gray haze had thinned enough for normal visibility to return.
Ethan finally opened his eyes.
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small compass-like device. The needle spun briefly before locking onto a specific direction.
Alexander Pierce.
Without hesitation, Ethan began walking.
…
Elsewhere inside the facility, Nick Fury had watched the entire confrontation through the security system.
The one-sided nature of the battle left him silent for a long time.
In the end he quietly updated Ethan Blake's threat assessment, raising the danger level by two full tiers. Several capture strategies that Fury had previously considered were immediately discarded.
At the same time, he increased the clearance level required to access Ethan's personal file.
From Level Nine to Level Ten.
From this moment forward, only Nick Fury himself would be able to view the complete record. As for the other person who once held Level Ten authority—the previous director—Fury was quite certain that man was no longer alive.
In another office, Alexander Pierce was also watching the aftermath through the surveillance feed.
The death of Crossbones didn't make him sad.
At most, he felt a slight sense of regret over losing a useful tool.
What truly filled his eyes, however, was greed.
Power like that…
If he could somehow control it—even if he couldn't reproduce it completely—it would still be more than enough.
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