The Author's Extra: My SSS Skill Turns Souls into Anything!

"The ranking difference is insane!"

"Someone check the system, this has to be wrong—"

The murmurs ran through every tier of the arena simultaneously, students looking between the two names on the screen.

Alden stood at the edge of the elevated council section, looking down at the battlefield.

’He must’ve arranged this.’

There was no other explanation. The matchmaking system paired students by rank and combat ability. A student at 248th didn’t randomly get thrown against someone sitting comfortably at 9th. That gap didn’t happen by accident.

Nathan was still in his seat, relaxed with one leg crossed over the other.

Then, without looking at Alden, he spoke loud enough to carry.

"If someone backs away from a fight simply because their opponent is stronger, then they’re nothing more than a scared person pretending to be tough." Aimed at exactly one person.

Alden’s eyes sharpened.

’So that’s what you’re doing.’

Below them, the announcer raised her crystal microphone.

"Everyone, please calm down! There appears to have been an error in the matchmaking system. This pairing clearly doesn’t meet the required conditions, so we’ll cancel it and generate a new—"

"Wait."

The announcer paused.

Alden looked down at her. "Don’t change it."

The arena went quiet.

The announcer blinked. "What?"

"I said don’t change the matchup." He stepped toward the edge. "I accept it."

A beat of silence.

"But the ranking difference is enormous. You don’t have to—"

"It’s fine." He bent his knees and jumped.

He dropped straight down from the council platform, coat snapping hard in the air around him, and hit the arena floor with both feet. Dust scattered outward from the impact. He straightened slowly, arms loose at his sides.

"I’ll face him."

Nobody spoke for a full second.

Then the arena found its voice all at once.

"IS HE INSANE?!"

"He’s ranked 248th — he just challenged someone from the top ten!"

"Nathan is a fourth-year! There’s almost TWO THOUSAND points between them!"

Even the first-years who had been screaming his name moments ago had gone quiet, their excitement curdling into something that looked uncomfortably like worry.

Nathan’s smile appeared.

He stood from his seat and came down through the stairs the normal way. The crowd noise gradually changed texture as he approached the battlefield, the chaotic shouting settling into a tense, watching quiet as his boots touched the arena floor.

He didn’t walk toward Alden.

He walked around him in a slow, deliberate circle. Eyes flicking to Alden at every few steps.

"I must say, you’re braver than I expected." His hands stayed at his sides. "You have guts. Unfortunately, guts aren’t enough to reach my level."

Alden turned his head, tracking him.

"What are you trying to prove by arranging this match, Nathan?"

Nathan kept walking. "You talk as though I arranged it."

"Don’t." Alden’s voice stayed even. "The system pairs students by rank and ability. A student at 248th doesn’t get matched against the 9th on accident. That’s too convenient."

Nathan stopped. "You’re more perceptive than I gave you credit for."

"So say it. What do you want?"

Nathan looked at him for a moment.

"I’ve been taking you too lightly."

Yellow mana gathered around his hands. A sphere formed in his palm, layer after layer of dense energy wrapping tightly around a core that was already brighter than most students could produce.

"But now that we’re being serious—" His fingers closed around it. "I think it’s time I remind you where you belong."

His eyes landed on Alden, looking right at him as if he’d been waiting for this exact moment to speak.

"I love showing people exactly that." The ground cracked under his foot.

BOOM.

He was across the arena before the crack finished forming. The sphere pulled back with his arm as his body twisted, the force behind it compressing into something that turned the air around his fist into noise.

The attack was already inches from Alden’s face when Alden’s weight shifted as he turned his shoulder repositioning his feet, body rotating out of the path of the strike.

The yellow sphere tore through empty air.

Alden was already somewhere else.

"I suppose you shouldn’t be so confident about that."

[Predator’s Instinct — Cooldown: 5:00]

Nathan’s momentum carried him forward into nothing. He caught himself and turned, Alden was standing several meters behind him, completely still, coat settling back into place.

The arena took a second to process it.

Then:

"HE DODGED THAT?!"

"Nathan’s attack was POINT-BLANK—"

"How did he even move?!"

In the upper tiers, students who had been watching casually sat forward in their seats without deciding to.

Nathan’s expression had gone somewhere past surprise and into something harder.

’He actually... dodged me?’

He didn’t let the thought sit. His body was already moving again, the yellow mana surging beneath his feet rather than concentrating in his fist, his speed tripling as the gap between them collapsed in under a heartbeat.

The punch came from the side.

Alden raised his arm.

Lightning gathered around his hand in the half-second he had a condensed blade of crackling electricity that formed between one breath and the next.

CLANG.

Nathan’s fist hit the blade and the collision exploded outward in a burst of yellow and blue-white that lit the arena floor in sharp shadows.

Alden’s boots scraped backward three steps.

Nathan drove forward, not giving him the space to reset, pressing into the weapon with the full weight of his momentum behind him.

"So you can keep up with my speed." His jaw was set. "But that doesn’t mean—"

Alden angled the blade upward.

Nathan’s force suddenly had nothing to push against directly and slid instead, carrying him past Alden’s guard.

Alden stepped inside with lightning blade came in low and locked against Nathan’s weapon arm, pressing it flat.

Nathan tried to force it away with the blade.

The blade didn’t move.

Nathan’s eyes went to his own arm. To the lightning pressing against it. To the fact that a student ranked 248th had not just reacted to his speed but had redirected him and trapped him in his own reach in four exchanges.

"How—?"

Alden looked at him close enough.

"Maybe instead of thinking about where everyone else belongs—" the lightning around the blade intensified, heat coming off it in visible waves— "you should think a little harder about the person standing right in front of you. Mr. Discipline Committee."

Nathan’s jaw tightened. His voice came out flat and hard.

"Don’t get full of yourself."

Alden’s lips moved.

"That’s exactly what I was going to say to you."

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