Ex-Rank Awakening: My Attacks Make Me Stronger - Chapter 390

Chapter 390: EX 390. Perk Of An Overlord
Leon watched the lunatic crumble into a cloud of corrupt mist, the figure disintegrating before the blade could descend.

The mist rolled outward like ink in water, twisting through the broken air.

And the instant it spread, Racheal’s voice cracked through the stunned silence.

“Did Leon just use my talent?”

Her eyes were wide, pupils trembling as if she’d witnessed something impossible.

The others turned sharply toward her, surprised by the sudden accusation.

Seeing everyone stare, she took a breath and explained,

“Throne of Boundless Perception, lets me perceive what normally can’t be perceived. It reaches concepts that shouldn’t have form. Fate. Time. Space. Reality. Soul. Everything abstract.”

Her words floated through the group like a forbidden secret.

Even the Dowager, still recovering from the chaos, murmured under her breath,

“Talent?”

Malachi offered her a soft shrug.

“You’ll get used to it, Your Grace.”

The Dowager eyed the beastman but stayed silent.

Nikko leaned forward, expression serious.

“Okay, but what does that have to do with Leon using your talent?”

Racheal swallowed, gaze drifting back to the battlefield.

“Because… what Leon hit wasn’t the lunatic’s body.” She lifted a trembling hand.

“He attacked everything that made up its existence. Every weak point, physical, temporal, spatial, conceptual, spiritual.”

The realization sent a chill through them.

Adrian blinked rapidly, voice unsteady.

“You’re saying… Leon attacked all that? How is that even possible? Even for him, isn’t that, way too much?”

Racheal met his eyes, a sympathetic look crossing her face as he hovered on the edge of existential crisis.

“I’m as shocked as you are. But it’s simple. If you can see a weakness, you can hit it. And if you have enough force, you can damage it.” She exhaled.

“Leon clearly has the force.”

Adrian and Eden stared at the air like it personally offended them, their minds spinning.

Malachi and the Dowager were simply confused, trying to process a system of logic they’d never learned.

But Nikko and Elizabeth; ever calmer, focused on a different angle.

Elizabeth tilted her head.

“The real issue that Leon was able to use your talent.”

Racheal nodded.

Nikko’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully as she continued,

“If he can use yours… he might be able to use ours too. Guess that’s the perk of being an Overlord.”

Eden finally steadied himself, then muttered,

“He just couldn’t let us have this one, could he…”

But before the frustration could settle, something unexpected happened,

the corrupt mist snapped together again.

Shapes folded inward, stitching themselves into the now muscular silhouette of the lunatic once more.

This time, the creature looked stunned, truly stunned.

Not triumphant. Not crazed. Just confused.

And Adrian’s voice broke the tension.

“Wait, was that my talent?”

No one answered.

No one even looked his way.

All eyes were fixed on Leon, because none of them wanted to miss what he did next.

****

The lunatic stared at its own restored form as if the world had tilted sideways.

It shouldn’t have been alive. It knew it shouldn’t have been alive.

Yet the corrupt mist it had become had reformed again, pulled together against its will.

And when its red eyes finally locked on Leon, the earlier arrogance drained out of it like water through a torn sack.

It jerked backward instinctively, chains rattling in a frantic clatter. Its posture crouched low, like something cornered.

“What… did you do to me?”

Leon didn’t answer right away. His expression stayed cool, almost bored.

“You’re the stronger one,” he said lightly.

“Why don’t you tell me?”

That only made the creature stare harder. Its false heart, nothing but knotted corruption, throbbed unevenly.

Even that was new. Even fear was new.

Leon let a quiet beat pass before adding,

“No need to act humble. If it helps, I can do it again so you get a better idea.”

He lifted Void Blade.

The lunatic’s eyes widened.

“Wai—”

It burst apart before the word finished, exploding into corrupt mist once again.

And again, after a moment, the mist pulled together and reformed its body.

Leon tilted his head.

“Understand it now?”

This time the lunatic stared at him with fear, real, heavy fear burning behind those red eyes.

And rather than wait for Leon to speak again, it lunged.

All its chains swung wide, blades slicing toward Leon’s neck with desperate speed.

But the blades never reached him.

They halted an inch from his skin, and the lunatic detonated into mist again.

It reappeared several meters away, blades still raised, its chest heaving.

Leon looked at it like someone mildly waiting for an explanation.

“So, mighty one,” he asked.

“Tell me how I did that. Or should I give you another example?”

The creature went perfectly rigid. Its red eyes tracked Leon like it was facing some eldritch predator rather than a human, every instinct in its body screaming at it that Leon was wrong, that Leon was impossible.

“Haaaaaaa!”

Its roar shook the void as corrupt aura blasted outward, spilling across the empty space around them.

The pressure was enough to make the air tremble. Leon watched it without flinching.

And then the lunatic bolted.

It spun and shot away so fast its chains tore grooves in space itself.

‘I must report this to the Lord.’

Its connection was severed the moment it faced that Anomaly.

That alone should have been a sign, but I guess arrogance is a brother to foolishness.

‘I have to go directly… I have to—’

It never finished the thought.

It exploded again, mist ripping apart its escape attempt mid-flight. And a heartbeat later the mist was dragged back into shape, the creature reforming right in front of Leon, exactly where it had started.

Leon’s eyes glowed a sharp violet as he asked, almost gently,

“So. Any answers?”

The lunatic couldn’t speak. Couldn’t move. It finally understood, truly understood that nothing it did mattered anymore.

It was trapped.

Cornered.

Helpless.

And Leon had no intention of sparing it.

****

-Authors Note-

19-Day Challenge: If we stay in the Top 50 of the Golden Ticket rankings until the 19th of this month, I will do a mass release on that day.

To make the conditions easier: If the book receives one thousand or more power stones before the 19th, the mass release is guaranteed. I believe we can pull this off, let’s go!