SSS Rank Awakening: The World Beyond Redemption

They rested only long enough for the worst of the exhaustion to ease, then left again under full dark. The night stretched long. Goblins came first—small, hunched things with yellow eyes that reflected torchlight that was not there. Rael and Lila cut them down without ceremony. Later the rats appeared, the size of large dogs, teeth yellow and wet. Those died much quicker. By the time the sky began to pale they had left a trail of small corpses behind them and the storage ring felt heavier.

Dawn was only a thin grey line when they turned back toward the cave. The air smelled of wet earth and distant smoke. Rael walked ahead, wand in one hand, goblin blade in the other. Lila stayed farther back among the trees, an arrow already nocked.

ROOOAAARRR!

The roar came without warning.

It rolled through the forest like something heavy and wet being torn open. Both of them froze, then turned. Branches exploded outward. A massive shape burst from the undergrowth at full charge.

[Forest Ape]

[Level 24]

[Rank: Savage]

It was easily twelve feet tall, its body a dense mass of black-brown fur and knotted muscle. Long arms hung nearly to the ground. Its mouth hung open, ropes of thick saliva swinging with every stride. Small, furious eyes locked on them.

Rael pushed Lila out of the way of the beast. The ape reached Rael. One enormous hand swung sideways and caught him across the chest. The impact lifted him clean off his feet and hurled him through the air. He slammed into a thick trunk hard enough to make the wood crack. Air left his lungs in a single wet burst. He slid down the bark and landed on all fours, coughing.

Lila’s legs were shaking. The ape turned toward her. Spit dripped from its jaws onto the leaves. She reached for another arrow. The ape kicked her before the shaft cleared the quiver. The blow sent her tumbling across the ground. She tried to rise. The creature closed the distance in two strides, closed one massive hand around her skull, and lifted her off the ground as if she weighed nothing.

AAAAAHHHH!

Lila screamed. The sound was high and raw. The ape’s fingers began to tighten.

Rael forced himself upright. Blood ran from the corner of his mouth. He had no time for a proper arrow. He snatched a sharp stone from the ground, focused, and poured Piercing Arrow into it. The stone left his hand like a bullet and struck the ape square in the temple.

It turned to dust on contact.

The ape dropped Lila and charged. Four limbs drove it forward with terrifying speed. Rael threw himself sideways. The creature smashed into the tree he had just left. The trunk shattered. Splinters the size of spears exploded outward. Rael rolled, came up on one knee, and flung a Fireball at the ape’s chest. The flame washed across thick fur and only scorched the outer layer. The smell of burned hair filled the air.

The ape grabbed his leg, swung him like a club, and released. Rael’s body hit another tree with enough force to snap it clean through. He hit the ground hard and coughed a mouthful of bright blood onto the dirt. Pain radiated through every rib. He had believed the class would make him strong. The world was reminding him how little that strength still meant.

The ape raised one massive foot to stomp. Rael twisted. The foot came down on his side instead of his head. His vitality held. Bones flexed but did not break. The pressure still drove the air from his lungs and left black spots swimming across his vision.

Lila pushed herself up. Blood covered half her face from a cut above the eye. She looked at the ape crushing Rael into the ground and for one clear second the thought of running crossed her mind. The ape was focused. She could disappear into the trees. No one would know what happened here.

She gritted her teeth until her jaw ached, raised the bow, and loosed.

The arrow sank deep into the ape’s supporting leg. The creature roared and staggered. Its stomp went wide and slammed into empty earth hard enough to leave a crater. Dirt and stones sprayed outward.

The ape’s head snapped toward Lila. It abandoned Rael and charged her on three limbs, the wounded leg dragging. It did not try to strike this time. It simply closed both hands around her entire body and lifted her again. Lila’s feet left the ground. Tears cut clean lines through the blood on her cheeks. In that moment she only saw her sister’s face and the empty house that would wait if she never returned.

Rael forced himself to his feet. Every breath scraped. He ran whole pulling his right leg with him. The goblin blade went into the ape’s lower back with both hands behind it. The thick muscle resisted, then gave. The ape bellowed and spun, still holding Lila. Rael did not let go of the blade. The Ape used his hand to remove Rael from his bCk but he climbed the creature’s spine using the embedded sword as an anchor, reached the thick neck, and drove the Emberwood Wand straight into the soft tissue behind the skull.

”Fireball.”

The spell detonated inside the flesh.

The ape’s neck erupted outward in a wet explosion of bone, muscle, and burning blood. The head lolled sideways, half-severed. The hands released Lila. She fell hard. The massive body swayed once, then collapsed forward like a falling tree, shaking the ground when it hit.

Rael dropped with it, still gripping the wand. Steam rose from the ruined neck. The forest fell quiet except for their ragged breathing and the slow drip of blood from the open wound.

He stayed on his knees for a long moment, chest heaving, vision still edged with black. Lila crawled the short distance to him and sat with her back against the same fallen body, both of them too spent to speak.

The first true light of morning filtered through the broken canopy above them.

[+ Level up]

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