E-Rank or SSS-Rank: I Awakened a Skill That Shouldn’t Exist

Quint groan faintly as he staggered back to his feet, his chest rising and falling with heavy breaths.

His armor was cracked, his body trembling slightly, yet his smirk remained. If not for the power he had borrowed earlier—the strength of one of the dreaded Dreadknights—that last slash would have cut him clean in half.

He knew it. He felt it in his bones. The sheer brutality of Aiden's strike was something he hadn't anticipated.

His eyes narrowed as he turned toward the battlefield. There, the towering scorpion beast was locked in combat with Aiden's massive vine avatar.

Each clash between them shook the cavern, vines clashing against armored tails, the ground cracking under their combined might.

But something gnawed at Quint's mind: Why? Why was Aiden suddenly so strong, so relentless, so terrifying?

Inside the vine avatar, Aiden's eyes remained shut, his face unnervingly calm. He wasn't fighting through conscious calculation.

His body, his instincts, his rage—they were all moving on their own. In truth, he wasn't aware of every motion, but one thought rang like a war drum in his head:

He must kill this beast. He must kill this emissary.

If he failed, Clara would die. If he failed, he would lose another friend. The wound of Ron's death still throbbed in his heart, buried beneath the cheerful facade he wore for others.

The truth was that he was still bleeding inside, still haunted by the sight of losing someone dear. That agony was something he refused to experience again.

Never again would the cursed take away the ones he cared for.

And so, his resolve burned like fire.

The vine avatar roared, surging forward with renewed vigor. Every movement was wild yet calculated, reckless yet precise.

Aiden's subconscious was in full control, fighting like a beast yet carrying the sharp instincts of a seasoned warrior. His whip-scythes lashed in erratic, unpredictable arcs, tearing into the scorpion's armored body and leaving deep gashes.

The beast screeched and retaliated with its tails, but Aiden met its fury with his own, his movements too confusing to follow—like a drunken warrior who somehow always struck true.

Quint, watching from atop the beast, felt unease creeping into his chest. This wasn't the same opponent he mocked earlier. This was a menace.

A threat. With a snarl, he ordered the beast to create several massive walls of earth between them and Aiden.

The scorpion obeyed instantly, raising towering barriers of stone. But Aiden didn't falter. His vine avatar hacked through the first wall with merciless strikes, then the second, then the third.

Shards of stone and dirt exploded into the air. With every destroyed wall, Aiden drew closer.

Finally, Quint shouted, and the scorpion gathered its true power. All five of its tails flared, each one blazing with elemental fury—fire, lightning, frost, earth and wind.

Their power merged into a single devastating attack, a catastrophic beam that shot forward with a roar that split the cavern walls.

The strike tore straight through Aiden's vine avatar, blasting apart both of its arms along with the whip-scythes it held.

The impact carved a massive hole through its chest, shaking the ground with a deafening explosion.

Quint smirked again, believing he had ended it. "It's over," he whispered, relief and arrogance mixing in his tone.

But then—something unexpected happened.

The vines began to unravel. The massive avatar dissolved like mist, its form collapsing into nothingness.

And from its hollow chest, a figure emerged—Aiden himself, descending with a monstrous grin carved across his face.

His eyes gleamed with murderous frenzy, his hands warped into elongated claws, his teeth bared like a predator ready to kill.

"Got you," Aiden growled, his voice deep and feral.

With terrifying speed, he plunged downward, his claws tearing through the air and sinking directly toward Quint's stomach.

The claws struck. A sickening sound echoed, but instead of Quint's blood spraying, there was a metallic clang.

Aiden's eyes widened. His claws had been caught—gripped tightly in Quint's bare hand. At that moment, Aiden's beastly features flickered, then dissolved.

His claws shrank back into human fingers. His body trembled. His energy had finally run dry.

Quint's lips curled into a cruel smile. "You're strong… but strength without endurance is nothing."

Before Aiden could react, Quint's fist shot forward, driving brutally into his gut. The impact was explosive, forcing blood from Aiden's lips as his body was launched backward. He soared helplessly through the air, crashing down with bone-rattling force.

Just before he could slam into the unforgiving ground, Clara dove forward, catching him mid-fall.

The sheer weight of his limp form almost dragged her down, but she braced herself, gritting her teeth as she landed hard, skidding across the ground.

Clara's eyes burned with both fear and fury. She looked up at Quint, who stood tall, the power of the Dreadknight still radiating from his frame.

Clara knelt beside Aiden, her face etched with worry as she gently placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey… are you alright?" she asked, her voice trembling despite her attempt to sound steady.

For a moment, Aiden just stared at her in silence. Then, with a weak grin tugging at the corners of his lips, he chuckled.

"You bet I am."

But almost immediately, his body betrayed him. His chest jerked violently, and he coughed out a thick stream of blood onto the ground.

His groan escaped despite his effort to suppress it. The attack from the Dark Emissary had nearly shattered his throat, and if he hadn't instinctively pulled back at the last instant, he would have been silenced forever.

Clara's eyes widened, her expression stricken. "Aiden…!"

He clutched his throat, blood dripping from his mouth, then shut his eyes. His entire body screamed with pain, but there was still something keeping him alive—the morph-enhanced resilience of his body.

No ordinary human could have survived such an assault. But even so, he knew the truth: his energy reserves were gone. Fighting now was close to impossible.

Seeing that he was at least stable, Clara released a heavy sigh of relief. She patted his shoulder softly, forcing a small smile onto her face.

"You've done enough. Rest now. I'll deal with him and his oversized pet."

Aiden frowned at her words, his brows knitting in disbelief.

"Wait—what nonsense are you spouting? There's no way you can take those two monsters alone!"

Clara turned to face him. Her lips curved into a faint smile, her eyes burning with determination.

"Who said anything about fighting alone?"

The air around them shifted instantly. A deep hum vibrated through the battlefield, followed by streaks of glowing blue light tearing across the sky.

Several high-powered energy beams rained down, forcing the colossal scorpion beast to defend itself by conjuring thick layers of earth walls.

But the defenses meant nothing. The first beam tore through the wall as if it were paper. The second and third followed, and the once-solid barrier collapsed under the relentless barrage.

Screeches of agony echoed from the beast as the remaining blasts ripped across its armored body.

Clara stood tall as fifteen armored figures descended through the dust-filled sky. Their arrival shifted the tide of battle instantly.

Each one was clad in sleek blue armor marked with sharp white lines that glowed faintly, exuding a majestic aura.

"The Version 1.0 Battle Bots…" Aiden muttered weakly, his eyes widening in surprise.

One of the units stepped forward, carrying something on its shoulder—something unmistakable.

Clara's heart skipped a beat. It was her Tech Suit, the very one she had abandoned in their previous escape.

Without hesitation, she pressed her hand against the chest plate of the battle bot. The suit detached with mechanical precision, wrapping itself around her body with synchronized clicks and hums.

In seconds, she stood clad once more in her Version 2.0 Armor, the white plating with golden trim gleaming as it powered up.

Aiden's eyes softened. Despite the worry gnawing at him, he couldn't deny that she looked like a warrior reborn.

Across the battlefield, Quint's expression hardened into something grim and sinister. His eyes narrowed at the reinforcements, and his voice dripped with venom.

"It doesn't matter. No matter how many of you gather here… you will die. All you've done is delay the inevitable."

He raised his hand, summoning the golden glow of the Yellow Orb to heal his wounds and restore his beast. But then—he froze.

His hand trembled. His eyes darted wildly. The orb… was gone.

Panic etched itself across his face as his gaze locked onto a figure standing beside Clara.

Slowly, almost impossibly, Aiden had risen to his feet. Though blood still dripped from his lips and his body screamed with exhaustion, his smile was as sharp as a blade.

"What—?!" Quint's eyes widened.

Aiden placed a hand gently on Clara's shoulder. She turned to him, shocked. His voice was quiet, but steady.

"What do you think? That I'd let a woman fight in my stead?" He chuckled weakly, then shook his head.

"No… I won't be arrogant enough to claim I can handle him alone either. We'll do this together. Let's kill them both."

Clara's heart thudded as she stared at him, half in disbelief, half in admiration.

Aiden then turned his gaze toward Quint, his grin twisting into something darker.

"I told you once, didn't I? That if I were to be a thief… I'd be divine-class. One who takes what others think can never be taken."

His hand moved, and in it gleamed the very Yellow Orb Quint had been searching for.

Quint's pupils dilated. "No…!"

But before he could react, Aiden lifted the orb to his lips, smirked one last time.

And then....he swallowed it whole.

TO BE CONTINUED.....

AUTHOR'S NOTE

That's the chapter, everyone!

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– Ultra