Re-Awakened :I Ascend as an SSS-Ranked Dragon Summoner - Chapter 489

489: Show off 489: Show off The tunnel opened into a larger chamber.

Noah stepped through, his void glow pushing back the darkness, and stopped.

The chamber was massive-maybe forty feet across, the ceiling lost in darkness overhead.

And covering the walls, floor, ceiling, everywhere, were bones.

Human bones, beast bones, all fused together by that black substance, creating a grotesque tapestry of death.

In the center of the chamber, something moved.

It was big.

Bear-sized, maybe larger, its bulk dominating the space.

The body was ursine-thick muscles, heavy limbs, covered in matted fur that was more black substance than actual hair.

But extending from its sides were additional limbs, eight of them, thin and articulated like spider legs, each one ending in a sharp point that clicked against the bone-covered floor.

The head was wrong, too elongated, too angular, like someone had grafted a monkey’s skull onto a bear’s neck and then stretched it.

Black substance held it all together, visible in the gaps between mismatched body parts, pulsing with some kind of internal rhythm.

[HOSTILE ENTITY DETECTED] [SPECIES: AMALGAMATION – PARASITIC CONSTRUCT] [CATEGORY: 5] [WARNING: ENTITY IS DEFENSIVE CONSTRUCT – ELIMINATE TO ACCESS CORE] The amalgamation’s head turned toward Noah, multiple eyes of different sizes focusing on him.

It opened its mouth-too many teeth, all different shapes and sizes-and roared.

The sound was wrong, multiple voices layered on top of each other, the death cries of every creature that had been consumed to create this thing.

Then it charged.

The spider limbs propelled it forward with terrifying speed, the bear body adding mass and momentum.

Noah blinked to the side, the creature’s charge carrying it past him.

It pivoted on those spider legs, the articulation letting it turn impossibly fast, and came at him again.

Noah caught one of the spider limbs with his gauntleted hand, felt the strength behind it-Category 5 strength, capable of crushing stone.

He channeled dark chi, reinforced his grip, and pulled.

The limb resisted, but he was stronger.

He yanked, using the creature’s momentum against it, sending it sprawling sideways.

[-12 HP] One of the other spider limbs caught him across the back, the pointed tip finding the gap in his armor’s plating.

Pain lanced through his shoulder, hot and immediate.

[HEALTH: 3,299/3,520] The amalgamation was back on its feet-all ten of them-circling him.

The spider limbs tapped against bone-covered floor in a rhythmic pattern, the sound echoing in the chamber.

Its mismatched eyes tracked his every movement.

It lunged again, multiple limbs attacking from different angles.

Noah blinked backward, but one limb still caught him, scraping across his chest plate hard enough to leave a gouge in the void-infused metal.

[-8 HP] ‘This thing is fast.

Stronger than it should be.

The parasite is burning through everything it’s consumed to power this construct.’ The amalgamation opened its mouth, black tendrils emerging from its throat, seeking, searching.

Noah dodged, moved around it, looking for weakness.

The joints where different body parts met?

The black substance holding it together?

It spun, spider limbs creating a barrier between them.

Noah ducked under one, blocked another with his armored forearm, blinked through the gap to get close to the body itself.

His fist, enhanced by white chi, drove into the bear torso.

The impact sunk into flesh, but the black substance absorbed some of the force, distributing it through the amalgamation’s entire structure.

[-10 HP] A spider limb caught him in the ribs, the Void Shell absorbing most of it but not all.

Noah grabbed the limb, channeled dark chi, and crushed it.

The amalgamation screeched, pulled back, the damaged limb hanging useless.

[HEALTH: 3,281/3,520] ‘Seven limbs left.

Plus the main body.

This is taking too long.’ The amalgamation charged again, this time with more desperation, more aggression.

It was learning, adapting, understanding that Noah was a genuine threat.

Its attacks became more coordinated, more focused, trying to overwhelm his defenses through sheer persistence.

Noah met the charge head-on this time.

No more dodging, no more testing.

He channeled both types of chi simultaneously-white energy reinforcing his entire body from within, dark chi amplifying his strikes from without.

Purple void energy began to gather around his gauntleted fist.

The amalgamation’s spider limbs came at him from all sides.

Noah took the hits on his armor, let the Void Shell absorb what it could, focused entirely on his attack.

[-15 HP] [-12 HP] His fist came up, void energy blazing around it like purple fire.

[NULL STRIKE ACTIVATED] The punch connected with the amalgamation’s chest, right where bear body met spider limbs, right where the black substance was thickest.

The effect was immediate and catastrophic.

Matter ceased to exist where his fist touched.

The erasure spread outward in a sphere, consuming fur, flesh, bone, black substance, everything.

The spider limbs disconnected, falling away as their anchor point vanished.

The monkey head toppled forward as the neck disappeared.

The entire construct collapsed, its component parts separating as the thing holding them together was unmade.

[HEALTH: 3,254/3,520] The pieces hit the ground in a wet scatter of disconnected body parts.

The black substance tried to reform, tried to pull everything back together, but without the core structure, it just writhed uselessly across bone-covered floor before dissolving into nothing.

Noah stood in the remains, breathing hard, his armor scored and damaged but intact.

He looked around the chamber, searching for what the amalgamation had been protecting.

There.

In the wall, embedded at chest height, pulsing with energy that his system immediately flagged.

[ENTITY CORE DETECTED] [DISTANCE: 15 FEET] [WARNING: HIGH ENERGY CONCENTRATION] The core was maybe the size of his fist, irregular in shape, glowing with that same black light the tendrils had shown.

But underneath the blackness, Noah could see other colors-blues, greens, purples-like dozens of different beast cores had been compressed and fused into something new.

He approached it slowly, his gauntleted hand reaching out.

The core pulsed in response to his proximity, the energy within it resonating with his void abilities.

Noah grabbed it, pulled.

The core resisted for a moment, roots or tendrils or something holding it to the wall, then came free with a wet tearing sound.

It sat in his palm, heavy, warm, wrong in a way that made his system immediately analyze it.

[PARASITIC CORE ACQUIRED] [ANALYSIS: NON-STANDARD BEAST CORE] [COMPOSITION: AMALGAMATED ENERGY FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES] [NOTICE: ABSORPTION AVAILABLE – ONE TIME OFFER] [QUERY: ABSORB CORE?

YES/NO] [WARNING: STANDARD STORAGE NOT RECOMMENDED – CORE INSTABILITY DETECTED] Noah stared at the notification, then at the core in his hand.

His system had never offered absorption before.

Cores went into storage, were used for crafting, for energy reserves.

But this core was different.

The system knew it.

“Yes,” Noah said.

“Absorb.” [ABSORPTION INITIATED] The core dissolved in his hand, breaking down into pure energy that flowed into his body through his armor, through his skin, through his meridians.

It felt like fire and ice simultaneously, like every cell in his body was being rewritten.

The energy of dozens of beasts, all compressed and refined by the parasite’s unique properties, flooding into his system.

[LEVEL UP!] [LEVEL UP!] [LEVEL UP!] [LEVEL UP!] [LEVEL UP!] The notifications came rapid-fire, each one accompanied by a surge of power that made his void energy reserves expand.

Five levels.

The core had given him five levels in one absorption.

[CURRENT LEVEL: 66] [NEW TITLE UNLOCKED: PARASITE SLAYER] [MYSTERY BOX ACQUIRED] [CONGRATULATIONS: UNUSUAL ACHIEVEMENT RECORDED] Noah stood there, feeling the power settling into his system, feeling his attributes increase, feeling the void energy that now flowed through him with greater ease.

The core had been worth more experience than anything he’d fought before, probably because it represented dozens of consumed beasts compressed into one source.

His communication device crackled again.

This time, faintly, he heard Sophie’s voice.

“-under attack-something big-need backup-” Noah’s jaw tightened.

The mystery box, the new title, all of it could wait.

“Domain Link,” he said, focusing on Sophie’s presence through their connection.

“Sophie.” [DOMAIN TRAVEL ACTIVATED] [DESTINATION: LINKED ALLY – SOPHIE] Space folded around him, the cavern disappearing as he moved between dimensions, heading straight for his team.

__ “Run!” Diana shouted, her voice cutting through the sound of splintering wood behind them.

Trees were falling.

Not toppling naturally, but being smashed aside, pushed over, torn from the ground as something massive carved a path through the forest.

The sound was deafening-wood cracking like gunshots, earth tearing, and underneath it all, a low rumbling that felt more like an earthquake than footsteps.

Valencia’s scanner was screaming warnings, the device’s pitch climbing higher with each passing second.

“What’s the reading?” Sophie demanded, already running.

“Category five!” Valencia gasped, her legs pumping as she vaulted over a fallen log.

“It’s definitely category five!” The recruits didn’t need to be told twice.

They scattered into a loose formation, maintaining enough cohesion to support each other but spreading out enough that one attack couldn’t take them all.

Seraleth’s long strides carried her ahead effortlessly, the elf moving through the forest like water, her enhanced physiology making the desperate sprint look almost casual.

Then the thing burst through the treeline behind them.

It was an ape.

Had to be, based on the general shape-long arms, hunched posture, that distinctive simian profile.

But it was wrong in every measurable way.

It stood maybe thirty feet tall, its body mass comparable to a small cargo ship, muscles bunched under fur that was matted with dried blood and strange growths.

Cores were embedded everywhere-in its chest, its shoulders, along its arms-each one pulsing with energy.

Its mouth was filled with fangs and it’s face was contorted in rage, eyes glowing with that same unnatural light the other apes had shown.

“GO!” Diana screamed.

They ran faster, abilities burning through energy reserves to push their bodies beyond normal limits.

Marcus’s enhanced strength carried him over obstacles in single bounds.

Chen’s kinetic absorption let him bounce off trees without losing momentum.

The recruits moved like their lives depended on it, because they absolutely did.

The alpha ape roared, the sound physical enough to shake leaves from branches.

Then it grabbed a tree-a full-grown oak maybe forty feet tall-and ripped it from the ground like someone pulling a weed.

It threw.

The tree spun through the air, end over end, massive and deadly.

Diana’s ability flared, her dead zone expanding to catch the projectile.

The tree froze mid-flight, suspended fifteen feet above the fleeing team, its momentum completely nullified.

“Keep moving!” Diana commanded, sweat already beading on her forehead from the effort of holding something that large.

The alpha grabbed another tree.

Threw it.

Then another.

It was hurling forest vegetation like javelins, each throw powerful enough to crater the ground where they landed.

Diana caught what she could, her ability working overtime, but there were too many.

The team had to dodge, weave, split up and reconverge as massive projectiles rained down around them.

A tree crashed into the ground ten feet from Sophie, the impact spraying dirt and debris.

Another smashed through the canopy overhead, showering them with broken branches.

If this continued, for sure they’d be pulverized.

Then, cutting through the chaos like a knife, a purple portal shimmered into existence.

It appeared ahead of Sophie, maybe three feet in front of her, a tear in reality that pulsed with void energy.

And through it stepped Noah.

But not walking.

Moving.

He was already at full sprint when he emerged, his Void Striders carrying him at speeds that made him blur.

Purple energy wisped from his boots as he blazed past Sophie, past Diana, past all of them, moving not away from the alpha ape but directly toward it.

“What is he-” Sophie started.

Noah hit a falling tree.

Not into it.

Onto it.

His armored boot planted on the spinning trunk’s surface, the Void Striders’ Gravity Defiance letting him treat the airborne projectile like solid ground.

He ran up its length as it flew, then leaped to another falling tree, then another, using the alpha’s own attacks as stepping stones.

He was ascending, climbing higher with each jump, moving through the chaos of flying timber like it was a staircase built just for him.

Blood covered his armor-not his blood, based on how he was moving-and his gauntleted hands were stained dark.

The alpha saw him coming.

Roared.

Grabbed a massive tree trunk with both hands and hurled it directly at the approaching human with everything it had.

Noah ran straight up the incoming projectile, his Void Striders carrying him along its spinning surface, building speed, building momentum, his armored form wreathed in purple energy that grew brighter with each step.

At the apex of his run, maybe fifty feet in the air, directly level with the alpha’s head, Noah’s fist blazed with void energy so intense it looked like he’d grabbed a piece of falling star.

[NULL STRIKE ACTIVATED] He punched through the tree he was standing on.

The trunk simply ceased to exist where his fist touched it, matter erasing at the molecular level.

But the energy didn’t stop there.

It kept going, expanded outward in a sphere of absolute destruction.

The tree exploded, and the trees around it, and the trees beyond those, all of them unmade in a chain reaction that carved a perfect sphere of nothing through the forest canopy.

When the chaos settled-when the sound of destruction faded and the shower of debris stopped falling-there was silence.

The alpha ape was gone.

Not dead, not fallen.

Gone.

Where its head and upper torso had been, there was just absence.

The lower body stood for one impossible moment, then toppled forward, crashing into the forest floor with an impact that shook the ground.

The Eclipse team stood frozen, staring at the carnage.

At the perfect sphere carved through the forest.

At the corpse of a Category 5 beast that had been erased from existence.

Then Noah blinked.

Reality folded, and he was suddenly standing next to Sophie, that same purple aura still flickering around him.

His armor was covered in blood that was definitely not his own.

His breathing was steady, controlled, like he’d just finished a light workout instead of killing a Category 5 in a single strike.

The recruits stared.

Then stared harder.

Chen’s mouth was literally hanging open.

Valencia’s scanner had finally stopped screaming, but her hand was shaking so badly the device rattled.

Marcus found his voice first, though it came out as barely a whisper.

“Who the hell is Eclipse?” Noah glanced at the recruits, then at Sophie, one eyebrow raised behind his helm like he was asking if he needed to explain.

Sophie just shook her head, a slight smile playing at her lips despite the adrenaline still flooding her system.

Seraleth was the only one who didn’t look shocked.

She looked satisfied, like she’d just had a theory confirmed.

“I see,” she said simply, her musical voice carrying clearly in the sudden quiet.

“That explains much.” Diana released the trees she’d been holding, letting them fall harmlessly to the ground now that the threat was eliminated.

She walked over to Noah, punched him lightly in the armored shoulder.

“Show off,” she said, but there was relief in her voice.

Noah shrugged.

“You called for backup.”