House of Valen Chapter 1

Chapter 1: To Challenge a Legend

The sky split with a thunderclap as Nox Valen plummeted toward Smallville. He didn’t stumble or crash by accident; he chose to fall that way. Arms spread, body cutting through the air like a spear, he let himself slam into the dirt road just outside the Kent farm.

With a deafening crack, the earth split open, dust exploding upward, and when it settled, a fresh crater revealed Nox at its heart, smirking like he’d just arrived at a party.

“Come out, Superman!” His voice carried across the fields, sharp and unyielding. He tilted his head, grin widening.

Instead of the Man of Steel, the screen door of the farmhouse creaked open. An older woman in an apron stepped onto the porch, waving cheerfully.

“Hello, Nox! Did you come to play with Clark again?” Martha Kent’s warmth never wavered; no matter how many times Nox turned her quiet farm into a battlefield.

He gave her thumbs up. She’s was as naïve as ever. If only she knew what these little ‘sparring matches’ of ours really were.

“Would you like some breakfast?” She asked.

Nox nodded with a nonchalant expression he wore as soon as she arrived.

Kryptonian and Saiyan blood roared inside him, and food was always welcome.

He followed her inside, just as a red-and-blue blur streaked across the sky, landing with precision behind him.

Clark Kent entered the kitchen with that steady, patient expression Nox both respected and mocked in equal measure.

“Were you out saving the day once again, big bad Superman?” Nox teased, dropping into a chair with a lazy grin.

Clark sighed, already tired of this routine. “You should use your strength for good, Nox. You know that.”

Nox chuckled, leaning back. “Are you talking about letting the bad guy live just so he can break out and do it all over again? Tell me, Clark… How many times has Lex slipped past your justice?”

“They’re put in prison,” Clark countered firmly.

Nox's laugh continued, leading with a sharper tone. “Yeah, only to escape and kill again... great job, hero. You save the day… only for the same day to happen tomorrow.”

Martha returned then, laying down steaming plates of eggs, bacon, and sausage. Nox devoured them without hesitation. His Saiyan appetite demanded more than one plate, and Martha… bless her heart, had long since grown used to feeding him like three farmhands.

Clark just watched, arms crossed, as Nox cleared plate after plate. He wasn’t annoyed, just waiting for the inevitable. He had trained himself from long ago to have a steady, calm, and unshakable demeanor.

At the same time, Nox’s blood was boiling. His Kryptonian cells thrummed with sunlight, and his Saiyan heritage screamed for combat. Superman was the perfect rival: an immovable wall and a man who stood for ideals Nox could never accept or understand.

He dropped his fork, licked the grease from his fingers, and met Clark’s gaze across the table.

A wide grin split his face.

Without another word, Nox surged forward, the house rattling as his aura flared. His fists burned as the Saiyan fire within ignited, and he charged headlong at the man the world called invincible.

To Nox Valen, he was more than that. Superman was his ticket to the very top no matter the outcome of his fights.

The idea of testing his strength vs. such a person was always the brightest part of his day.

Even though Clark could have easily stopped Nox in the farmhouse, he didn’t. The walls would never survive such an impact, and protecting his mother was the highest priority. So instead, he let himself be tackled out the door and hurled across the fields.

If they fought out here, no innocents would be caught in the crossfire.

Nox chuckled as Clark flipped through the air, steadied himself, and hovered, cape rippling in the wind.

“Do we really have to do this?” Clark sighed, understanding it was an obviously pointless question. He already knew this battle junkie’s answer.

Of course he got no response as Nox roared and launched forward with furious speed, fists blazing. Clark blocked each strike with calm precision, his arms a blur of red and blue.

He wasn’t taking much damage, but Nox’s relentless pressure managed to push him back an inch at a time.

Normally, Clark would have ended this quickly. Beat Nox down, send him home, and hope he cooled off. But lately he had begun to wonder if there was another path. Maybe Nox could be trained, shaped into something better, a beacon to shine when Clark couldn’t be there.

Even though that was the plan, putting it into action proved harder than expected. He was set in his ways, and nothing could sway him in any other direction.

To make the situation even worse, every blow he landed only seemed to fuel him. Every wound only made him stronger the next time they met.

With a guttural cry, Nox shot upward and then dove with a fist aimed at Clark’s head. After he got deflected, he followed with a wide arc kick, his Saiyan blood burning hot.

Clark flowed with the rhythm, blocking each attack with effortless movement. Then, in a single motion, he countered… driving his fist into Nox’s chest.

The impact launched Nox like a missile. He tore through a hillside and exploded into the side of a mountain, rock and dust raining down around him.

Blood dripped from his knuckles as he staggered upright, eyes wild and a grin splitting his battered face. There was no fear, only exhilaration. He slammed his fists together, muscles trembling, and then hurled himself forward, this time aiming to drive straight through Clark.

Superman caught him, shifted his weight, and used Nox’s own momentum against him. In a flash, Nox was thrown skyward, breaking through the clouds in a single second. Thousands of feet up, he halted, grinned, and then tucked into a dive.

He dropped like a meteor, fist leading, aura blazing red and white. Clark rose to meet him, their punches colliding with cataclysmic force.

The shockwave tore across the plains, flattening trees, hurling debris, and sending a hurricane of dust outward for miles.

When the air finally stilled, Superman stood tall. At his feet lay Nox, bloodied, bruised, his arm bent at an ugly angle.

Clark’s face was stern, unreadable. “You should really stop this.”

Nox spat blood and smiled through the pain. “Make me. You’ll always be my rival, Clark. I won’t stop until I beat you.”

For a moment, Superman studied him. Then, to Nox’s surprise, the faintest smirk tugged at his lips.

“Good luck with that.”

With a sudden rush of air, he was gone, probably off to save another city or damsel in distress.

Nox lay in the crater, chest heaving, and laughter bubbling from his throat. His bones screamed, and muscles burned, but his Kryptonian cells were already repairing, feeding strength back into him through the sun. Beneath that, his Saiyan blood surged, eager and greedy, demanding growth.

By the time he stood again, the ache in his body was being replaced by a rush of power so intoxicating, he nearly staggered.

“Zenkai boost,” he muttered with a feral grin, “Such a cheat.”

He threw back his head and laughed, then shot into the sky, streaking homeward, elated at how much stronger this previous encounter had made him.

Nox couldn’t wipe the grin from his face. His body still hummed with adrenaline, a manic laughter spilling from his throat as he soared through the sky.

“All this effort… these years of fighting,” he muttered, chest rising and falling with exhilaration. “I can survive a few minutes vs. a literal legend of this world.”

The thrill sent shivers down his spine. He remembered the first time he had challenged Superman.

How he’d been flattened in a single second, bones shattered, left bleeding in the dirt.

How many times had he been broken beyond repair and hauled back into the Kent farmhouse to heal before he could even crawl away? Far too many to remember, but the end result was so very worth it.

But now… he could stand tall and even walk away from a confrontation with a man called Superman. It’s true that he was still battered but alive, even managing to push such a person back for a few seconds.

A taste of what waited at the end of this road. That glimpse alone would drive him further, proof that his obsession with growing stronger was not in vain. Not with a body born of two superior races, each complementing the other so perfectly.

Still, he wondered how much force Clark had actually been using. No way was that anywhere near full strength. That truth only made him laugh even harder.

The wind screamed past his ears as he angled his body forward, tapping into the incredible speed he’d honed over years of reckless training. In no time at all, the endless fields gave way to the jagged skyline of Gotham City. The chosen home of his family, a city chaotic enough to amuse someone like him.

Here, the shadows ran deep; the weak preyed on the weaker. It’s a place where the games never stop. For Nox Valen, Gotham wasn’t a cursed city; it was fun!

His father had been a genius of Krypton, a scientist from a world that no longer existed. His mother was a survivor of a lost world, Planet Vegeta, her warrior’s spirit unbroken despite the gentleness in her heart.

By some impossible twist of fate, they had found each other, and that union created Nox. Half Kryptonian and half Saiyan, a union no one could have imagined.

The memories he carried was also something that no one else in this world had. He remembers another Earth where they had stories about Superman and Dragon Ball Z. This was a great advantage in such a dangerous world and a driving force in getting as strong as possible in the future.

He looked forward to fighting enemies that could literally destroy the world. It was something he didn’t want to leave in the hands of people who would rather not kill and leave that threat to come back for revenge later.

A grin suddenly curled on his lips as he thought of an interesting character from this world. Selina Kyle, also known as Catwoman, is someone I want to take for myself in the future.

But for now, he had more immediate goals. He’d just graduated high school. His father had been strict about that… No world-breaking battles until you finish your education.

On the other hand, his mother had just laughed at that. Sparring with her daily through childhood, pushing his strength until even her Saiyan power level could no longer keep up.

When she finally admitted he was too much for her, she encouraged him to find someone worthy to continue his training.

With those past life memories, there was only one real option: the immovable object, the Man of Steel—Superman.

The uniqueness of my body cried out for a worthy opponent, which was the moment Clark probably dreads the most.