SSS Ranked Awakening: All My Skills Are at Level 100

Chapter 597: What He Chose to Reveal

Leon met the four Archons at the entrance to the ice corridor.

An ice spear pierced the first man through the chest and shattered his core. Leon struck the second robber’s legs with lightning, dropping him long enough to close the distance and finish him.

Their combined assault had enough force to tear apart the wagons behind him, but the narrow corridor prevented them from surrounding him. Every time two tried to advance together, Leon’s ice forced one into the other’s path.

The third hurled a compressed lance of qi past Leon’s shoulder toward the prisoners. Leon stepped into its path. The attack opened his forearm, but the ice wall behind him remained untouched. Before the man could form another lance, Leon killed him.

The final Archon turned and ran. He made it forty paces before ice closed around his ankles and fixed him to the road.

Behind Leon, the young woman kept her voice low and steady as she told everyone to stay down and hold the wounded still.

Then the pressure over the road deepened.

The Ethereal Initiate walked forward. Heat from the burning wagons bent around him, and hairline cracks spread across Leon’s walls before he came within ten paces.

”Seven Archons,” the man said. ”You cut through them as though their years of cultivation meant nothing.”

Qi gathered in his raised hand. It was denser than anything the others had wielded, folded repeatedly and seated deep within his body. He drew from the ground and air with a fluency that forced Leon to revise his estimate of the coming strike.

Qingyue remained on the slope, watching with her sword still sheathed.

The first exchange drove Leon eleven paces backward and shattered part of the wall beside him.

He recovered his footing with a shallow cut across his ribs. The leader lacked the overwhelming force of the Moonless Shadow Leopard, but his foundation had been refined over many years. Every strike carried layers of compressed qi, making him far more durable than a Velarian with similar raw power.

The difference from the Archons was immediate. Their attacks had relied on power and technique. The Ethereal Initiate’s energy responded almost like another limb, changing direction after release and gathering around damaged flesh before Leon could exploit the opening.

Leon settled into his stance and began testing those layers.

Lightning closed the distance and punished openings at the man’s wrists and knees. Ice controlled the ground between them. Slanted barriers forced the Ethereal Initiate to turn, while patches of frost stole his footing whenever he committed too much weight. Leon kept every deflection angled away from the survivors.

The leader crossed the distance twice with steps that covered far more ground than they should have. Leon gave no sign that he had noticed. He adjusted his timing until the man arrived in front of an ice barrier and had to smash through it.

”You are hiding something,” the leader said, his breathing heavier now.

Leon ignored the accusation and watched the qi beneath his opponent’s skin. Whenever the man was wounded, energy rose from deep within his foundation and repaired the damage. Even a slash that opened his shoulder began closing within seconds. The centipede had used a crude version of the same principle. Here, the process was smaller, controlled, and directed by intelligence.

Leon also felt the faint pull beyond the man’s body. His consciousness was tied to something much larger and more distant. Killing him would require more than breaking flesh and core, but Leon kept that understanding to himself.

The next exchange gave the leader a clean opening. His hooked strike slipped beneath Leon’s guard while Leon shaped another wall, cutting deep into his left side.

Leon pressed a hand to the wound and released his Light affinity.

A clean glow spread beneath his palm. The bleeding stopped, and the torn flesh drew together. His deeper restoration remained concealed; the visible healing was impressive, but still believable as a third affinity.

The leader’s expression tightened. Leon had already shown lightning, ice, and light while dismantling his entire group. He had expected an inexperienced prodigy. Instead, every ability served a clear purpose.

Qingyue now watched Leon’s hands more closely than the fight itself. She had understood the same thing. He was choosing exactly how much to reveal.

Leon continued with the same three affinities. Lightning provided speed and damage, ice gave him defense and control, and light closed the wounds he could not avoid. Together, they were rare enough to draw attention without exposing the rest of his power.

Realizing the fight was turning against him, the Ethereal Initiate broke away.

He slipped through the damaged edge of the wall and plunged into the survivors. Someone screamed. A moment later, he emerged with a boy of six or seven trapped beneath one arm and a spike of gathered qi hovering beside the child’s throat.

”Stop.”

Leon lowered his hands.

The young woman rose, her face pale, and held one hand behind her to keep the other survivors from rushing forward.

The leader studied Leon’s expression. ”Yes. You are that kind.”

At the edge of Leon’s perception, Qingyue’s fingers settled on her sword. A fine thread of pale sword intent had already curved around the qi spike. If the man tried to kill the child, she would cut the attack apart before it reached him. With the boy protected, she waited for Leon’s response.

The leader had read Leon correctly, yet it gave him no advantage.

Leon reached for the space around the boy and folded it.

A soft breath of displaced air passed through the road. The child vanished from the robber’s grasp and reappeared four paces away beside the young woman, blinking but unharmed. She pulled him close so quickly that the cut across her shoulder opened again.

The leader stared at his empty arm.

Leon attacked before he recovered. Lightning destroyed the Ethereal Initiate’s body, but his awareness immediately pulled at the anchor spread through the cosmic background. Cold raced along that connection and froze the returning flow of energy. Leon then folded the surrounding space inward, crushing the anchored intent before it could form another body.

For an instant, a pale outline tried to gather where the man had stood. It broke apart as the severed connection collapsed, and the pressure hanging over the road vanished with it.

The man died within a single heartbeat. Leon gave him the quick death he had intended; dragging it out would help no one.

The last Archon finally tore one leg free of the ice and fled toward the rocks. Leon struck him with lightning and shattered his core before the body hit the ground.

Seven Archons and one Ethereal Initiate had attacked the caravan. None remained.

The road fell quiet, leaving Leon surrounded by the wounded.