SSS-Awakening: I Have Infinite Talents

"In the heat of battle, there is no time for pride, only survival." — Miyamoto Musashi.

– – –

Tasha saw it happening.

"DEXTER, MOVE!" she screamed, her voice cutting through the chaos.

But she couldn’t close the distance. She was about ten meters away, her blades drawn, her body already moving.

But ten meters was too far, and the wolf was too fast, and Dexter’s throat was completely unprotected.

The wolf’s fangs were inches from Dexter’s neck when Micah moved

The Shadow Step Boots fired at maximum thrust, killing all friction beneath his feet. He crossed the ten-meter gap in a fraction of a second.

The air cracked behind him, and a purple afterimage lingered where he’d been standing.

The Widow’s Wail whispered through the air.

The micro-vibrating blade passed through the wolf’s neck without resistance.

The head separated from the body mid-leap, the cut so clean that the creature’s momentum carried both pieces forward for another two meters before they hit the ground.

The severed head landed with a loud sound. The body crumpled beside it and dark blood sprayed across the concrete in all directions

The blood hit Dexter in the face.

The noble recruit stood frozen while his broadsword was still in his hand.

His mouth was open, but no sound came out. He looked like a man who had just watched his own death arrive.

Micah coldly kicked the headless corpse off his boots.

The body slid across the concrete and came to rest against a pile of rubble.

He turned to face Dexter, and the look in his eyes was enough to make the noble take a step backward.

"If you ever swing that sword like a scared child again, I will take it from you and give it to someone who knows how to use it," Micah said.

His voice was stern as he spoke, making the rest of the squad freeze in place.

"Your panic almost got you killed. And if you die out here because you can’t control your fear, you put every single person on this squad at risk."

Dexter’s face was pale. His hands started trembling on his sword.

It was the look of a man who had just realized, for the first time in his life, that his name and his money and his training meant absolutely nothing in the real world.

Tasha and Myra watched in stunned silence.

Neither of them had ever seen someone move that fast. The gap between Micah and the wolf had been ten meters, and he had closed it in the time it took to blink.

The cut had been so clean, so effortless, so completely devoid of wasted energy that it looked more like an execution than a fight.

[Ding!]

[1 x Mutant Gray-Fang Wolf eliminated.]

[EXP gained: 50 EXP.]

[Flux Unlock: 2% (Awakened Soldier Level 1)]

[Progress: 50/1000 EXP to Awakened Soldier Level 2]

The notification sat in the back of Micah’s mind, acknowledged but not addressed.

There was no time for it. Five wolves were still alive, and they were already regrouping.

"Thomas, left side. Tasha, right side. Myra, rear.

Dexter, stay behind me and don’t swing unless something is directly in front of you."

The orders came out fast and precise, and for the first time since the draft, every single member of the squad obeyed without hesitation.

Thomas moved left quickly, filling the gap between two collapsed walls.

He drew his iron blade and planted his feet. Tasha flanked right, her dual blades spinning in a tight, controlled pattern that kept the nearest wolf at a distance.

Myra stayed at the rear, her twin short swords held low and ready as her eyes scanned the shadows behind them for anything trying to circle around.

The five remaining wolves came in together.

The first one lunged at Thomas with its jaws wide open. But Thomas didn’t dodge. Instead, he planted his front foot, pivoted his hips, and drove his blade forward in a straight thrust that caught the wolf in the chest.

The iron blade punched through the wolf’s ribcage and came out the other side, and the creature hung on the blade for a moment before Thomas kicked it off with his boot.

The second and third wolves came at Tasha from opposite sides.

She dropped low, spun on her heel, and brought both blades around in a scissoring arc that caught the left wolf across the throat and the right wolf across the forelegs.

The left wolf went down immediately, its throat split open and blood pouring from the wound. The right wolf stumbled as its front legs gave out, and Tasha finished it with a downward stab through the skull.

The fourth wolf tried to circle around behind the squad, but Myra was waiting.

She intercepted it at the edge of the rubble, her blades moving with precision that ended with the wolf on the ground and its throat cut.

The fifth wolf was the smartest. It hung back, watching its pack mates die one by one, and when it saw the gap between Thomas and Dexter, it charged straight through it, aiming for Dexter’s exposed back.

Dexter saw it coming. His hands were still trembling, his face pale, and his broadsword shook slightly in his grip.

But Micah’s words were still ringing in his ears, and the image of the headless wolf landing at his feet was burned into his mind.

He swung.

It was a desperate, two-handed chop that used every ounce of his Flux percentage and none of his technique. But the broadsword was heavy, the wolf was close, and the blade caught the creature across the shoulders with enough force to drive it into the ground.

The wolf thrashed and snapped, but Dexter kept swinging.

Three more chops, each one harder and less controlled than the last, until the creature stopped moving and the concrete beneath it was painted dark red.

He stood over the body, breathing hard. His broadsword dripping, his hands shaking so badly that the blade was rattling against his gauntlets.

His face was a mess of wolf blood, sweat and fear, but his eyes had changed.

The panic was still there, but underneath it was something else. Something that looked like the first fragile spark of confidence in a man who had just discovered he could actually fight.

The street went quiet. Six wolves, dead in under thirty seconds.

Micah sheathed the Widow’s Wail and scanned the area through Beast Analysis.

The immediate threats were eliminated, but the energy signatures in the surrounding ruins were still active.

Faint, fading, but present.

The wolves had come from somewhere, and wherever that somewhere was, there might be more.

"Myra, check the subway entrance," Micah said. "See where they came from."

Myra moved toward the collapsed subway entrance with her blades drawn.

Her footsteps were silent on the broken concrete, and her body language was tense and ready.

She entered the darkness, and for thirty seconds, the only sound was the distant drip of water from somewhere deep inside the tunnel.

Then she stopped.

"Myra?" Micah called.

Her voice came back, and it was different. The controlled, measured tone was gone, replaced by something raw and tight.

"Squad Leader. You need to see this."

Micah moved to the subway entrance and followed her inside. The tunnel was dark, damp, and smelled like rotting meat.

Beast Analysis provided enough ambient data to navigate without a light, painting the environment in his mind as a 3D map of the space.

They found them twenty meters inside.

Bodies. Military drones, mangled and shattered, their chassis torn open and their circuits ripped out.

And beside the drones, human corpses. Four of them, wearing the heavy tactical armor of veteran soldiers.

The armor that was supposed to protect them had been torn open like tin foil, the plates peeled back to expose the remains inside.

Myra knelt beside the nearest corpse, her expression softening as she looked down at the body. She recognized the insignia on the armor.

"Patrol Squad 4," she said quietly. "The veterans Commander Jax told us about. They’ve been dead for at least two days."

Micah crouched beside the shredded veterans and activated Beast Analysis. The system scanned the claw marks gouged into the steel plating, and the data it returned made his stomach drop.

[Unknown Hostile - Estimated Number - 20+]

Stats: Estimated Very High Strength, High Vitality, High Agility.

Claw Mark Analysis: Depth indicates base physical strength bordering on Genetic Soldier tier.

Threat Assessment: Far exceeds standard mission parameters.

Recommendation: Immediate retreat and report.

The claw marks were deep. Too deep. Whatever had killed these veterans was not a standard pack wolf or a mid-tier predator.

The beast responsible for this was something entirely different, something whose base physical strength was bordering on the Genetic Soldier tier.

This was way beyond their mission parameters. They needed to fall back and call it in.

Micah opened his mouth to give the retreat order.

Then the howling started.

It came from everywhere at once. Dozens of howls, echoing from the rooftops, from the alleys, from the shattered windows of the surrounding buildings.

The sound was deafening, a chorus of high-pitched, blood-curdling screams coming from every direction and bouncing off the concrete.

Myra’s eyes went wide. "They’re above us."

Micah spun around. Through Beast Analysis, he could see them.

Dozens of energy signatures appearing on the rooftops of the ruined buildings, surrounding them on all sides.

The squad was surrounded.

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