THE MAN WITH THE SSS RANK ABILITIES

Chapter 12: After the Storm

The training ground was in ruins. Stone tiles cracked. Dust still hung in the air. No one dared move.

Leo stood at the center, his body still faintly glowing, holding Elaine close. Her breath had returned—barely—but she was unconscious, limp in his arms.

The black energy that had once surrounded him had vanished, but the fear it left behind still lingered in every heart watching him. Not a whisper. Not a sound. Just stunned silence and wide, disbelieving eyes.

Ethan was the first to move—just a step back.

His legs trembled.

That wasn’t the same Leo Carter. This was something else… something monstrous.

SSS rank? That wasn’t supposed to be real. Not for someone like Leo. And yet, everyone had seen it ….felt it. The power. The rage. The earthquake. The scream.

Leo looked down at Elaine’s face. Her skin was pale, her heartbeat faint beneath his fingers.

“She’s alive,” he whispered to himself, a breath of relief escaping him.

Then, his expression shifted rage melting into guilt. He hadn't been fast enough. He had failed to protect her when it mattered most. If that dark power hadn’t awakened, she would have died.

“What the hell happened to me…” he muttered.

Teachers began shouting, finally snapping out of their shock. One of them, Instructor Wren, pushed through the crowd. He was one of the strongest elite-ranked instructors at the academy, and yet even he kept a cautious distance from Leo.

“Step away from the girl,” Wren said carefully. “The medics are here.”

A pair of healers rushed in, surrounding Elaine with glowing hands. Leo didn’t move at first, unwilling to let her go. But then he looked up—saw the fear in their eyes—and gently laid Elaine down.

As the healers got to work, Wren stared at Leo. “What did you activate?” he asked. “That wasn’t a normal ability. You released something unstable.”

Leo didn’t answer. He didn’t even know how or why that happened. Everything in those few chaotic minutes felt like a blur. Like a dream soaked in fire and shadows.

“I don’t know what it is,” he said hoarsely. “It just… took over.”

Students began murmuring again from behind the safety of the crowd.

“Did you see his eyes?”

“He floated off the ground…”

“He almost brought the building down.”

“I heard it was SSS rank. That’s forbidden-level power…”

Wren turned to the crowd. “Everyone! Return to your dorms. Now!”

The students hesitated, glancing between the broken ground and Leo.

“NOW!!”

They scattered—some running, others still looking over their shoulders in fear.

Wren turned back to Leo. “We’ll talk soon. But right now, we need to stabilize her.”

Leo nodded, saying nothing.

As Elaine was carried away, Leo stood alone. He stared at the blood on his hands, his thoughts a storm.

He tried to piece everything together …..how it started, how the power surged through him. He concentrated, trying to replicate it… trying to summon even a spark.

But no matter how hard he tried… nothing happened.

All was void.

Hours later

Leo sat in the infirmary waiting room.

Elaine was stable but unconscious. The healers said the knife had barely missed her heart, and it was only through a miracle and his energy surge that she’d made it back.

A miracle?

No.

It was something darker than that.

Leo clenched his fists, still feeling echoes of that power. It had responded to his pain, to his anger… It hadn’t felt like a gift. It felt like something primal. Like a beast let out of a cage.

{SSS Ability Detected}

That voice…….he could still hear it echoing in his head. Mechanized. Cold. Final.

The door opened. Sophia walked in quietly, her steps soft. She had watched everything, yet her face showed no judgment just concern… and something else. A flicker of curiosity, maybe even admiration. As if, for a moment, she believed she could actually get Leo’s attention.

“She’s going to be okay,” she said softly.

Leo nodded but didn’t look at her.

“She wouldn’t have been… if not for you.”

Leo didn’t reply.

After a long pause, Sophia sat down beside him. “What happened out there… wasn’t normal. You know that, right?”

Leo finally spoke, his voice barely above a whisper. “I couldn’t control it.”

“But it saved her.”

“And nearly destroyed everything else.”

Sophia was silent for a beat. Then she asked, “Do you think he’ll come back? The one in the hood?”

Leo’s jaw clenched. “He wasn’t trying to fight me. He wanted to kill Elaine. That was the real mission.”

“But why?”

“I don’t know. But whoever he was… he didn’t come to test me. He came to send a message.”

Sophia looked uneasy. “To who?”

Leo stood slowly, his eyes hardening. “To me.”

Elsewhere, Ethan sat alone in his room, hands gripping the edge of his bed, face twisted in confusion and anger.

“What would’ve happened if that hooded freak hadn’t shown up?” he muttered. “I could’ve been humiliated… disgraced in front of the whole academy.”

He shook his head, refusing to let that thought linger.

“I won’t let that happen again. I won’t let a low-rank nobody disgrace me.”

But his thoughts circled back again and again to the hooded figure.

“Who was he? He didn’t feel like anyone from Avalon Academy…”

A chill ran through him. Something wasn’t right. Someone was playing a bigger game.

At the heart of the academy, in a hidden underground chamber known only to the highest-ranking officials, a meeting of grandmasters had been called.

The council of SSS-ranked elders sat around a long obsidian table. Each one bore power beyond imagination, but even they were disturbed.

“An unknown intruder on academy grounds... undetected.”

“A student unleashing a forbidden-tier ability.”

“And the girl… she was almost killed.”

“We’ve built this academy on unbreakable rules,” one of them said sternly. “So how did this happen under our watch?”

The air was heavy, thick with tension and unspoken fear.

No one had answers.

Meanwhile, Leo remained under quiet surveillance, confined to the observation wing……his energy being monitored. No one approached him without cause.

Far away, in a dark part of the academy……a chamber few knew existed….the hooded figure knelt before a taller shadow.

“I failed,” he said.

The voice that responded was deep, smooth, and slow. “No… you did exactly what was needed.”

The hooded man lowered his head.

“The boy has awakened,” the shadow said. “Now… we wait.”