SSS-Ranked Awakening: I Can Only Summon Mythical Beasts

“Hmm?” He has only begun his return back to where he’d laid waste to dozens of demons and beasts when the sensation hit him like a blade sliding under the skin.

Fast. Focused. Hostile.

Damien’s eyes narrowed mid-flight as Aquila banked through the air. The forest below blurred, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was the direction and speed of the presence racing toward them.

“…Another one,” he muttered.

The magic essence was unmistakable. Dense. Refined. Not wild like a mana beast, not crude like lesser demons. This one knew how to move. How to hide its intent until the last moment.

Damien exhaled slowly.

“Cancel Aquila’s summon.”

Aquila vanished mid-flight in a rush of wind and light, its form dissolving back into essence. The sudden absence of lift sent Damien plummeting toward the forest canopy.

That was intentional.

Above him, the winged abomination—something grotesque with stretched membranes, elongated limbs, and a vaguely humanoid torso—had been lining up its approach. Aquila’s sudden disappearance forced it to abort its charge, wings snapping wide as it twisted to reorient.

Too late.

Damien fell like a meteor.

He twisted in the air, essence flaring through his limbs to control his descent, eyes locked on the rapidly approaching ground. Branches shattered as he punched through the canopy, leaves and splinters exploding outward.

He landed in a crouch.

The impact cratered the earth beneath him, dirt and roots blasting outward in a ring. Damien rose immediately, already moving, already calculating.

Bang!

The demon landed moments later some distance away, its arrival far less elegant—l that Damien with its talons digging into soil, wings flaring wide as it stabilized itself. It straightened, head tilting, black veins pulsing beneath ash-colored skin.

Its mouth opened.

“You—”

Damien was already gone.

The distance between them vanished in an instant. The forest seemed to fold as Damien crossed it, essence roaring through his legs.

“Spare me the crap,” Damien said flatly and kicked.

His heel slammed into the demon’s mouth with a thunderous crack.

Booom!

The impact detonated.

The demon didn’t just stumble but launched, streaking backward like a bolt of black lightning. Trees in its path exploded into fragments as its body tore through them, carving a straight, violent line through the forest before finally crashing into a distant rock formation.

The ground trembled.

Damien didn’t wait.

He was already there when the demon tried to rise.

His fist slammed into its ribcage, compressing hardened flesh inward. The demon screamed—not in pain, but in rage—and lashed out with a clawed arm. Damien slipped inside the arc and drove an elbow into its throat.

Crack!

The demon staggered back, coughing black ichor.

It spread its wings, essence flaring as it prepared to counter but…

It was too slow.

Damien seized one wing at the joint and ripped.

There was resistance, and then tearing flesh, snapping bone, and a shriek that shook the canopy. The demon crashed sideways, rolling across the forest floor as Damien followed relentlessly, a blur of violence.

Punch.

Kick.

Elbow.

Each strike landed with surgical brutality, essence-enhanced blows targeting joints, weak points, balance. The demon tried to retaliate, but it couldn’t establish rhythm. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.

The fight looked one-sided.

Damien pressed harder.

“You came fast,” he said coldly, driving a knee into the demon’s abdomen. “Too fast to be wandering.”

The demon snarled, its eyes glowing brighter as something shifted beneath its skin.

It didn’t dodge the next punch.

It took it.

Damien’s fist slammed into its chest—harder than before, essence surging, and something felt wrong.

The impact didn’t disperse.

It sank.

The demon’s body rippled, its chest deforming unnaturally as Damien’s force vanished into it like water into a sponge.

Damien’s eyes flickered.

The demon grinned.

Black veins flared across its body, glowing violently as it twisted its torso and released.

The world exploded.

The compounded force of Damien’s own attacks—amplified, twisted, and returned—slammed into him head-on.

Damien felt it before he could react.

His ribs cracked.

Air blasted from his lungs.

Blood erupted from his mouth and nose as his body was hurled backward like a broken weapon.

He tore through trees, shattered stone, and finally skipped across the ground before crashing hard enough to carve a trench nearly a quarter of a mile long.

He came to rest in a ruined clearing, body smoking faintly with dissipating essence.

For a moment, nothing seemed to be happening.

Then Damien coughed.

Blood splattered the dirt beneath him as he rolled onto his side, one hand bracing against the ground. His breathing came in sharp, controlled pulls as he assessed the damage.

“…Hah.”

Several ribs fractured. Not shattered. One arm numb. Internal bruising. Pain… real pain burned through his torso.

But nothing fatal.

He pushed himself up to one knee.

The demon approached slowly now, its gait confident, posture relaxed despite its injuries. The torn wing hung uselessly at its side, but dark essence coiled around the wound, stabilizing it.

“Absorption,” it said, voice distorted but smug. “Compounding. The more you strike, the greater the return.”

Damien wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand and looked up at it.

“…That explains it.”

The demon tilted its head. “You are strong, human. Stronger than the others sent here. But you rely on force. On dominance.”

It spread its remaining wing slightly, essence pulsing.

“You will break yourself against me.”

Damien stood.

Slowly.

Carefully.

Essence surged through his body, knitting bone, reinforcing muscle, stabilizing organs. The pain dulled—not gone, but manageable.

He rolled his shoulders once. Then again.

“Good trick,” he said calmly. “Really.”

The demon smiled wider.

“But you made one mistake.”

Its eyes narrowed. “Oh?”

Damien took a step forward.

“Assuming I only know how to hit harder.”

He vanished.

Not in a burst of speed this time—but in a flicker of timing. Damien reappeared at the demon’s side, not striking immediately, but grabbing—fingers locking around its wrist.

The demon reacted instantly, essence flaring but Damien twisted.

The demon’s arm bent at an angle it wasn’t meant to, joints screaming as pressure—not impact—was applied.

Damien released and stepped back just as the demon unleashed a retaliatory blast of compounded force. The shockwave tore through the space where he’d been standing a heartbeat earlier.

Trees disintegrated.

The ground split.

Damien watched from a distance, eyes sharp, breathing steady.

“…So that’s how it works,” he murmured.

The demon snarled, realizing too late that the human was no longer rushing blindly.

Damien flexed his fingers, essence coiling tighter, more precise.

This fight wasn’t over.

But now… now he understood the rules.

And he never fought fair once he did.