Only I Awaken The Forbidden SSS-Rank Dragons

The ground around Aleron steamed with heat and the stink of charred flesh.

His claws dripped ichor in slow, deliberate rivulets, each drop hissing where it landed in molten pools of metal and blood.

Ash hung in the air like a suffocating fog. The scattered remains of the wave of abominations twitched faintly before going still for good.

The oppressive rhythm of the horde's roars had faded, replaced by a silence that was heavier than any sound.

Too heavy.

Aleron's narrowed eyes swept the broken horizon. The battlefield lay in ruin for hundreds of meters, pockmarked with smoking craters and jagged spires of metal.

Even the lesser abominations, Tier 2 and Tier 3 stragglers, lingered far at the edge of sight, unwilling to step into the scorched circle around him.

A prickle ran along the base of his neck.

His dragon senses tightened like a coiled wire. The air itself seemed to grow denser, resisting the movement of his wings.

It was not fear from the horde. It was something else.

Something old and ancient.

The sunlight dimmed.

It was not because of clouds but because the clouds warped.

From the far edge of the battlefield, reality tore open in a long vertical seam, black light bleeding through the air like an open wound.

The horde parted instinctively, making way without a sound.

Through the wound stepped something that did not move like the others.

Its shape was vaguely humanoid but stretched and elongated.

Eight jagged protrusions jutted from its back like broken wings, each ending in a blade-like shard of black crystal.

Its body was plated in smooth obsidian armor that pulsed faintly with veins of molten gold, each beat sending a faint hum through the ground.

And in its eyes, cold pale rings of light, there was awareness.

Aleron's jaw tightened.

Feeling the familiar pressure he had encountered before, he immediately understood the situation.

A Tier 5.

He did not need to sense its aura to know. The oppressive weight pressing against his chest was unmistakable.

But there was something more, an aura within the aura, something far sharper.

The air around the creature shimmered faintly, the ground beneath it buckling without physical touch.

Aleron's eyes narrowed as the distortion deepened.

Then he understood.

And his stomach sank.

Origin Ability.

He had faced countless abominations over these past weeks, ranging from Tier 1 through Tier 4.

Not a single one had shown even the faintest sign of an Origin Ability. They had always been pure instinct, raw power, and twisted flesh.

But this one…

The golden veins across its body flared.

The air folded.

The world tilted sideways, and Aleron was suddenly yanked three meters to the left.

There was no warning and no buildup, only a violent displacement as though reality itself had grabbed him and thrown him aside.

His claws dug into the ground to stop the momentum, molten metal curling instinctively around his feet to anchor him.

A flicker erupted in the air, and the Tier 5 was in front of him.

The eight crystalline spines on its back shifted, bending outward before snapping forward with a sound like breaking ice.

They did not just pierce the air but ripped through it, each tip dragging a faint spatial tear in its wake.

Aleron twisted sideways, but the space around him resisted like thick mud. His wings fought against invisible pressure.

One shard grazed his shoulder, cutting clean through his scale and into the flesh beneath.

The pain was sharp, but it was the after-effect that made his breath hitch.

The wound did not move. The muscles around it refused to respond, locked in the exact position they had been in at the moment of impact.

Aleron's mind raced.

The Tier 5 did not give him time to analyze. Its claws, longer than swords, slashed upward in a double arc.

The space they moved through fractured like a mirror, each crack bleeding faint light before sealing instantly.

Aleron blocked with crossed forearms, the impact sending a deep tremor through his frame. The claws scraped over his scales, but his molten armor thickened in response, glowing red where the heat pushed back against the spatial tearing.

He shoved hard, breaking the lock and sending the creature skidding back.

The eight spines bent inward like a blooming flower.

Aleron's instincts screamed.

He slammed both hands to the ground.

Spikes of molten metal erupted upward just as the spines fired, not shards this time but spears of compressed golden light.

They hit the metal and a loud bang resounded. However, the golden light began to disintegrate the metal, and the molten spikes ceased to exist where the light touched them, vanishing as though they had never been.

Aleron's heart pounded hard.

Origin Ability, golden destruction.

He had never seen an abomination use something so refined.

The Tier 5 blurred forward, crossing the gap in an eyeblink. Its claws lashed for his neck, its spines firing again in an unpredictable, spiraling pattern.

Aleron's wings snapped wide, and molten chains surged from the ground, coiling around the incoming projectiles. Two were caught while the rest shattered under the golden light of destruction.

He ducked under one, twisted around another, and slammed a fist into the creature's side.

Scales cracked. The Tier 5 skidded back, but only slightly, its pale eyes locked on him without emotion.

Strong and disciplined, Aleron thought grimly. This was not like fighting the mindless ones. This thing was a predator.

The battlefield warped again.

The space behind him folded inward, and the Tier 5 stepped out as though it had always been there. Aleron spun, intercepting its cleaving strike with his tail.

The impact jarred his spine, but the momentum carried him through, his claw sweeping upward and catching the abomination across the jaw.

Black ichor sprayed.

The golden veins across its armor flared hotter.

The world jumped.

One heartbeat he was in mid-swing. The next, his claw was buried in empty air, the abomination standing ten meters away, unharmed.

Using its unprecedented speed, it had dodged Aleron's strike.

Aleron could tell immediately that the creature was faster than him.

It was something he had noticed previously but had been unwilling to believe until now, when he was forced to.

Aleron sighed and then moved instantly toward the Tier 5 abomination.

As he attacked, a thought surfaced in his mind.

If I end up killing this abomination, will I get its Origin Ability?