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

"Nicholas! Did you see that? I got one down!" Sierra glanced over her shoulder at him, satisfaction in her voice, while Nicholas was still in the middle of an exchange with Legion.

He parried and answered without looking. "Good. Go find the crystal."

"Got it!" A satisfied smile crossed her lips as she turned toward the deeper section of the arena and started moving.

Roselle glanced at Sierra while she was smiling at Nicholas, then turned her eyes back to Leon.

Alden saw all of it.

’Now that Emilia’s out, we’re down to three. If Sierra gets into the area alone, she’ll find the crystal before we even know where to look.’

He made up his mind instantly and moved. Predator’s Instinct kicked in, blurring the world around him.

Sierra had barely taken three steps when Alden suddenly appeared right in her path.

"WHA—?"

He exhaled hard and fast, concentrated.

BOOM.

A burst of pressurized wind hit her center mass and threw her backward, shoes tearing two lines through the grass before she dug in and stopped herself.

She stared at him.

Alden lowered his stance.

"You’re busy now."

He looked sideways at Daniel, already turning toward him across the field.

"Both of you."

Daniel’s expression hardened. "Don’t get cocky fighting two at once!"

He closed in quickly with a hard strike aimed at Alden’s jaw.

Alden slipped to the left, letting the fist miss his cheek by an inch.

Right as he dodged, Sierra’s spell flew in from the right. They had planned this together.

BOOM.

Alden twisted away. The blast hit the ground right beside him, spraying dirt into the air and blasting heat across his side.

Daniel was already there on the follow-through, driving a low blow toward Alden’s ribs.

Alden caught the forearm on his own, angled it down, took the deflected impact across his forearm.

THUD.

His feet moved back half a step.

"Not bad."

Daniel pushed harder. "You’re not breaking through!"

They went at it properly, Daniel working close range with the focused aggression of someone who’d studied the distance, Sierra controlling the outside line, her spells cutting off the angles every time Alden started to create one.

Every time he moved toward Daniel, Sierra filled the lane. Every time he moved toward Sierra, Daniel was already inside his reach.

’They’ve done this before. This isn’t improvised.’

Across the field, Leon’s battle had stopped being clean.

His latest spell erupted across the ground in a wide yellow arc, forcing Roselle backward.

BOOM.

The grass where she’d been standing blew apart.

Leon grinned. "What’s wrong, sis? Regretting what you taught me?"

Another sphere was already condensing between his hands, layers of mana stacking.

"I’ve been pushing you back the entire match!"

Roselle’s eye twitched.

"You’re an idiot."

"What?"

"That’s precisely why I’m not concerned." Her hand came up, completely unhurried. "Your attacks got bigger. They didn’t get smarter."

"Hey—"

"You still haven’t learned the most important thing."

Her eyes narrowed.

"Sense the spell before you worry about where to dodge."

Leon frowned. "What does that even mean—"

He felt it.

Something heavy and built and already there, positioned above him while he’d been looking at everything in front of him.

His eyes went up.

The yellow formation hung directly overhead already releasing, larger than anything he’d thrown.

"WHA—"

BOOOOOOM.

It came straight down.

The impact drove him into the ground. The earth cracked outward from his position in every direction, the explosion swallowing everything in dust and sound and mana.

When it settled, there was a crater.

Leon’s voice came from inside it.

"...I hate when you’re right."

The announcer: "Leon from Team One has been eliminated!"

Roselle looked down at the crater.

"You always forget to look up," she said quietly.

Across the field, Nicholas deflected Legion’s blade and glanced at the crater.

"Idiot."

Legion parried the riposte.

"Agreed."

Nicholas’s eyebrow went up. "You didn’t have to agree that fast."

Their blades crossed again, hard and fast.

CLANG.

But something had changed behind Nicholas’s eyes.

’Roselle’s free.’

The match turned four on two. If Roselle moved into the search zone now, they’d have two people looking for the crystal while Legion was the only thing keeping him occupied. The match would be over before Alden could do anything about it.

’I can’t allow that.’

Roselle had already taken the first steps toward the terrain.

CRACK—BOOM.

Lightning tore across her path.

The bolt cut through the air inches from her shoulder and hit the tree beyond her. The tree exploded, branches and splinters blasting outward in every direction.

Roselle’s body twisted mid-step, feet sliding across the grass, narrowly through the gap.

She stopped and looked at the smoking wreckage of the tree.

Then at where it had come from.

Alden stood across the field. Both hands still raised. Sparks running between his fingers. Still engaged with Daniel and Sierra, but one hand had tracked sideways and cut off the lane without breaking stride.

’Lightning without any chant? From twenty meters away, while he was already fighting two people.’

The small smile on Roselle’s face wasn’t admiration. It was the face of someone recalibrating.

"So you’re stopping me yourself."

"Someone has to." Electricity crackled up his arm, building again. "You’re the most dangerous person in the search phase."

She looked at him.

"Then I have to get past you." She dropped into her stance.

"Try it."

"I already warned you not to underestimate your opponents!" The voice came from Alden’s right, too close.

His head snapped sideways.

Daniel was in the air.

He snuck away the second Alden looked at Roselle. Jumping high into the air, he caught Alden off guard. He locked his hands together above his head, spinning his entire body to put all his strength into a downward smash.

Predator’s Instinct was on cooldown.

’How did I miss him move?’

He didn’t had time to dodge that, the strike was already there.

BOOM.

The ground shook.

Dust and torn grass erupted outward in a ring.

But the impact hadn’t reached Alden.

Something was in front of him.

The dust thinned slowly.

Legion stood between Alden and where Daniel’s hands had come down. His feet had carved backward lines through the grass, one of them displaced sideways at an angle that shouldn’t have held the weight. His sword arm hung completely broken.

The announcer’s voice cut through everything.

"Legion from Team One has taken a critical strike and is eliminated from the match!"

Alden stared at his back. "...What?"

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