Traces of Shame

"You killed Vadelianna! You damned bastard!"

Two burly men sprang from the bushes in an instant, gripping an axe and a machete as they charged straight at Bullseye.

Bullseye watched the scene calmly, as if he did not consider the two men worth his attention.

The burly men wore ornaments made from beast skulls. It seemed they had gone on quite a few hunts and were trying to imitate their grandfather by mounting these trophies on themselves, but Bullseye only thought they had to be idiots beyond saving.

He knew these people.

Or rather,

he knew their grandfather.

Kraven the Hunter. He had been a truly great hunter, proficient in all kinds of hunting techniques, devoted to killing powerful prey. Bullseye had dealt with him many times back then, especially when it came to Spider-Man.

Kraven regarded Spider-Man as the perfect prey and fought him for years.

But Bullseye had heard that Kraven committed suicide after that battle. He believed he had fulfilled the greatest dream of his life and could no longer find a reason to keep living, so he chose to end his life at the very peak of his existence.

Yet as he watched these two men rush before him, Bullseye only saw them as disgraceful scum.

"The great blood of Kraven flows through our veins! We’ll kill you with our own hands and cut off your head!" The leading man reached Bullseye first, roaring as he raised the machete in his hand.

Stupid trash.

Bullseye launched a kick that knocked him off balance, then swept his legs out from under him and sent him crashing to the ground.

Seeing the other man charge in right behind him, Bullseye twisted sideways, narrowly evading the deadly axe blow before smashing his mechanical arm viciously into the man’s face.

"It is an honor to fight someone like you. Taking your head will be a glorious day for us, but you should never have killed my sister. You will pay for it!"

The leading man got back to his feet and lunged at Bullseye again. He had not suffered much damage from that blow.

Bullseye did not reply. He simply spun rapidly, weaving between their attacks and constantly looking for an opening to strike back.

These men were powerful and fast. More importantly, they had received professional training; that much was obvious from their fighting techniques. But clearly, their coordination was not good enough.

"We bear the glorious legacy of the great Kraven!"

The man brought his machete down. Though Bullseye did his best to evade, the blade still slashed his shoulder. Blood burst forth and splattered across the ground.

"You’re old, Bullseye!" The leading man licked the blood from his blade, revealing a bloodthirsty sneer.

Bullseye knew something of Kraven the Hunter’s background. Kraven had not been an ordinary man, but an enhanced human who had drunk a mysterious potion from Calypso the Witch.

Bullseye did not know exactly what that mysterious potion could do, but like the Super Soldier Serum, it could grant a powerful physique, extraordinary strength, and swift speed. Bullseye thought it seemed somewhat similar to Wakanda’s Heart-Shaped Herb.

These three worthless descendants of Kraven were probably the same. They likely had something similar in their bodies, though they were nowhere near as impressive as Kraven had been back then. It was probably some inferior product.

"Die, old man! I’ll tear out your heart!"

Seeing that Bullseye, who had been dodging all along, was finally injured, the other man lunged forward as well, swinging his sharp axe directly at Bullseye’s head.

"You’re not worthy."

Bullseye leaped high. His aged body had not diminished his skill by much. After modifying some of his organs, Bullseye could still maintain the combat prowess of his prime.

"And let me tell you something."

He planted a foot in the man’s face, then plucked one tooth from the beast-fang necklace around his neck. Without even taking aim, he flicked his wrist and hurled it toward the other leading man.

".Don’t talk so much in a fight!"

The next instant, the beast fang shot straight into the leading man’s mouth and pierced through it.

Blood erupted violently like water blasting from a pipe. The leading man’s head tilted to one side, and he fell stiffly to the ground.

"Big brother!" The axe-wielding man froze in shock. He had not expected that, despite the two of them having Bullseye suppressed, their opponent would somehow kill his brother instead.

"Real combat has never been the clumsy performance you idiots put on. Killing takes only an instant, just as I said before."

Bullseye’s voice slowly rose behind the man.

"You’re not worthy!"

The next instant, the man followed in his brother’s footsteps, becoming another part of the sea of bones beneath the beast lair.

Bullseye stared coldly at their corpses. He knew someone had set their sights on him.

He and Red Skull had torn apart their relationship earlier and fallen out completely. Red Skull would most likely send his assassins after him now, and he had even put a bounty on Bullseye’s head. Otherwise, the Kraven family would never have targeted him.

These wastes had formed an assassin group, much like mercenaries. They all acted for employers willing to pay for lives. Ordinarily, they would not have dared to lay a hand on him.

".Hng."

Bullseye clutched his shoulder, his expression grim.

That slash had only wounded flesh and had not reached the bone, but to Bullseye, it was a genuine humiliation. He should not have been injured—at the very least, not by trash like these people.

He had to fight in his best possible condition. Those superheroes were far stronger than these few men.

What he needed was a battle at his peak, a final hunt in which he gave everything he had. And that absolutely could not be disrupted by any stray cats or dogs, much less interfered with by that old trash Red Skull.

Bullseye leaned against a rock and slowly sat down.

The blood from his shoulder left a mark on the stone wall, a trace of shame.

The coming battle was important. Bullseye clenched his fist. This fight was crucial to him; in a sense, it was perhaps the only chance he would ever have in this life—a truly important battle.

"So be it, Skull."

"Keep sending people to kill me."

"I’ll kill every person you send. This time, no one can stop me. No one."