SSS Awakening: I Can Create Skills By Will-Chapter 26: One Step Past Despair

A slow breath left Arthur’s chest.

Preparation was done.

Behind him, the battlefield roared. Steel clashed. Magic burst in flashes of light. Shouts and screams blended into one long, grinding noise. Ahead of him, the boss still sat calmly on its throne, as if nothing happening around it was worth attention.

"Good," Arthur muttered as he closed the interface.

It was time.

The awakeners realized something was happening a second too late.

Arthur vanished.

He didn’t blur. He didn’t fade. He was simply there, then gone. Like the world had skipped a frame.

Several heads snapped toward the spot where he had stood. A few blades slowed mid-swing.

"Where did he"

The air twisted behind the throne.

Arthur reappeared directly in front of the seal.

For one heartbeat, no one moved.

Even the monsters hesitated. Their jagged motions stuttered, as if the dungeon itself had been caught off guard.

The boss reacted.

For the first time since the fight began, it panicked.

The skeletal throne scraped harshly across stone as the monster lurched forward. Its halberd screamed through the air, corrupted mana exploding outward in violent waves. Its empty eye sockets locked onto Arthur, fury replacing the bored indifference from before.

It had not expected this.

It had expected struggle. Delay. Slow exhaustion.

It had expected the awakeners to drown in endless skeletons. To weaken. To break. To crawl forward only when it allowed them to.

Arthur had stepped past all of that.

The awakeners felt their hearts jump into their throats.

"That madman..."

"He went straight for it!"

"Can he even break that thing?!"

Hope and fear twisted together in their chests. It was reckless. Completely insane.

But if it worked...

Arthur didn’t look back.

He stood in front of the seal.

Up close, it looked worse. The surface wasn’t smooth. It was warped and layered, thick with tainted mana that folded over itself like scar tissue. It pulsed slowly, like something alive. Each pulse fed the dungeon. Fed the boss.

"So this is it," Arthur muttered.

There would be no second try.

No backup plan.

He pulled everything inward.

Execution Intent surged through him, sharper and cleaner than ever before. The world narrowed. Noise faded. The chaos behind him blurred into the background.

All that remained were lines.

Pressure.

And a single target.

Weak points lit up in his awareness. Not just on the surface, but deeper. Beneath the layers. Hidden under forced reinforcement and twisted mutation.

One shot.

Arthur moved.

His blade came down with absolute commitment. No hesitation. No doubt. Intent roared through the strike as if judgment itself had been delivered.

The impact shook the chamber.

BOOOOM!

A shockwave ripped outward. Light burst in fractured arcs. The seal let out a sound like a scream, high and sharp, as cracks raced across its surface.

For a moment, it looked like it would shatter.

Then the cracks stopped.

They slammed shut under crushing resistance.

Arthur was thrown back a full step, boots grinding trenches into stone as he forced himself to stay upright.

Silence fell.

Then the seal steadied.

It hadn’t broken.

A sharp sting of frustration cut through his chest.

"Damn it..."

Across the battlefield, awakeners stared in stunned disbelief.

They had felt that attack. The pressure of it. The weight behind it.

"That should’ve shattered it..."

"That wasn’t normal."

"What kind of seal survives that?"

"How mutated is this dungeon?"

It should have been an F-rank seal.

It should not have endured something like that.

But the damage was real.

Skeletons across the battlefield collapsed mid-swing, crumbling into dust. Tainted mana thinned. The oppressive weight pressing on their shoulders lightened, just a little, but enough to notice.

Even the boss staggered.

Its aura flickered. Cracks in its bone armor reformed slower than before.

Arthur let out a breath.

Not victory.

But not failure.

"I’ll take it."

He barely finished the thought before the halberd came crashing down.

CRASH!

Arthur twisted.

Intent Step snapped him out of the way just as corrupted mana detonated where he had been standing. Stone exploded. Shockwaves tore through the chamber, knocking skeletons apart and sending nearby awakeners stumbling.

The boss didn’t stop.

It pressed forward immediately.

Heavy swings followed one after another. Each strike carried brutal force meant to crush, to disrupt, to overwhelm. The air itself felt heavier. The dungeon resisted him now, pushing back against every movement.

Arthur gritted his teeth.

"So you’re done playing around."

The next strike came fast and direct.

He met it head-on.

KRAAANG!

Blade collided with halberd. The impact shot through his arms, rattling bone and muscle alike. Pain flared, sharp and real, but Execution Intent crushed hesitation before it could grow.

He slid backward, boots skidding.

Then he countered.

His blade flashed toward a joint he had already mapped in his mind.

It cracked.

For a brief second, he felt it give.

Then the bone sealed itself.

Regenerated.

"Of course," Arthur muttered.

The boss roared and swept low. The halberd carved through the air, shockwaves tearing across the floor.

Arthur leapt.

Intent Step flickered, but the dungeon interfered. The movement dragged slightly off-center.

He corrected mid-shift, barely clearing the blast.

From the awakeners’ side, the fight didn’t look real.

They had never seen anyone stand toe to toe with something like that. Each clash shook the air. Each missed strike shattered stone.

And Arthur was still standing.

"He’s still fighting..."

"That thing hits like a truck."

"Is he actually doing this alone?" 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Arthur knew the truth.

He wasn’t winning.

Every solid strike he landed should have done more. Should have mattered more. But bone armor regenerated. Mana continued to surge.

Even weakened, the seal was still feeding the boss.

Still, he adapted.

He baited heavy swings. Slipped inside the reach of the halberd. Struck between plates instead of at them. Aimed to disrupt rather than destroy.

He chained Intent Step in short bursts, not to escape, but to reposition.

Too slow and he’d be crushed.

Too reckless and he’d be punished.

"Focus," he told himself. "Read it."

The halberd slammed down again.

CRASH!

Arthur rolled through the debris. He came up coughing, blood streaking across his sleeve. His ribs screamed. His arms felt numb.

Execution Intent held him upright.

He slashed upward, carving a deep gouge along the boss’s ribs.

The bone cracked.

Then healed.

Again.

"Tch."

Behind him, the awakeners were struggling.

Without Arthur cutting through the battlefield, the pressure built fast. Their lines buckled.

"Hold!"

"Don’t break!"

"Rear flank, cover it!"

They could feel the difference.

His absence was a gap no one else could fill.

Every glance toward him carried the same silent thought.

Please.

Arthur blocked another strike, barely.

The force hurled him backward.

He hit the ground hard.

THUD.

Air burst from his lungs. His vision blurred. A high ringing filled his ears. Blood pooled at the corner of his mouth.

For a second, he didn’t move.

That was all it took.

Despair rolled through the awakeners like a cold wave.

"He’s down..."

"No... no, get up."

"That’s it. We’re finished."

Hands trembled. Shields dipped. A few people took half-steps backward without even realizing it.

If Arthur couldn’t stand, then none of this mattered.