Ex-Rank Awakening: My Attacks Make Me Stronger-Chapter 95: EX . Epicenter

Eleanor grimaced as she sliced open a demon’s chest, the thick hide peeling apart with resistance.

She reached in with her gloved hands, pulling out its heart, still faintly twitching.

"At this point," she muttered, "it just feels like we’re his clean-up crew."

Adrian remained quiet, kneeling beside another body.

He worked with methodical precision, extracting heart, liver, kidneys, the usual high-value organs, all while wearing a distant look in his eyes.

Eleanor glanced over at him, frowning.

"Why aren’t you saying anything?"

Adrian froze mid-motion, blade hovering above a fallen demon’s abdomen.

After a second, he stood straight and looked ahead, not at them, but at the carpet of corpses Leon had left in his path.

"What am I supposed to say?" he asked quietly.

"That he should slow down because we’re too weak to keep up?"

Eleanor blinked, stunned by his honesty.

Even Eden stopped harvesting, turning to listen.

Adrian exhaled slowly, sheathing his dagger for a moment.

"You know... I used to think I could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him."

His voice was bitter, but calm.

"That if I trained hard enough, gave it everything, I could eventually catch up. But the truth is... he’s not someone you catch up to. He’s a storm. A monster."

He glanced at Eleanor, then Eden.

"When I stopped trying to match him, and focused on improving myself, it became easier to breathe."

Eden and Eleanor both fell silent. His words carried weight, not of resentment, but quiet acceptance.

Adrian turned his gaze toward the stronghold’s deeper halls, where demon corpses littered the ground like discarded trash, sliced down with inhuman precision.

"Besides... what help can we even offer to someone who leaves destruction like this in his wake?"

They all looked. The halls were soaked in black blood, heads and limbs severed clean, not a single demon left breathing.

The trio stood amidst the aftermath of a massacre, but none of them had even lifted their weapons.

For a moment, nothing was said. Just the slow, rhythmic squelch of organs being harvested.

Finally, Eleanor and Eden returned to their work, this time, with more focus. Not out of obligation, but out of understanding.

They couldn’t keep up with Leon, not yet.

But they could grow. Improve. And earn their place, piece by bloody piece.

As Adrian returned to his task, he thought to himself with a silent sigh,

"At least he could’ve left some demons for us to fight... I wanted to try out some new techniques."

And so the clean-up crew worked on, surrounded by the corpses of demons slain by a force they were only beginning to understand.

****

Leon was a blur of death and momentum, his boots barely touching the ground as he carved his way through the twisted stone corridors of the stronghold. Shadows twisted. Screeches echoed. Claws slashed, but none found their mark.

He didn’t speak.

He didn’t think.

He moved, like a blade drawn with purpose.

Every demon that stood in his path fell within seconds. Heads spun through the air, bodies crumpled, blood splattered like rain behind him. It wasn’t a battle. It was a slaughter, and he was the executioner.

As he raced toward the epicenter, a massive D-rank demon emerged from the darkness, a grotesque, hulking beast standing over four meters tall. Its bulging muscles rippled beneath its armored skin, and with a roar, it raised both fists overhead, slamming them down like twin meteors.

BOOM!

The ground trembled as the impact sent out a shockwave of dust and debris.

But Leon was already gone.

Within the swirling dust cloud, a flicker of movement burst out, Leon reappeared at the giant demon’s side, right by its thick, scaled neck. His expression was calm, and detached.

His lips barely moving as he whispered,

"Horizon Cleave."

His blade arced through the air.

An aura slash, sharp, blue, and precise, burst from the edge of his sword like a flash of divine judgment.

The massive demon didn’t even react.

As its head slid from its shoulders with a sickening wet sound. Blood erupted, painting the air in black-red streaks before the demon’s massive body collapsed with a thunderous crash.

As Leon landed softly, barely making a sound, with his sword still humming with residual energy.

All around him, corpses littered the corridor. Dismembered. Beheaded. Slain before they even knew death was upon them.

Leon looked down at the fresh kill, his eyes narrowing as they locked onto the stump of the demon’s neck.

The cut was jagged, not like the clean cuts Leon usually delivered.

Blood had burst immediately instead of the usual momentary stillness that came when Leon’s sword split reality faster than perception.

He stared for a moment, then muttered,

"...My control is getting worse."

It wasn’t just a hunch, it was fact.

Leon had reached the point where his raw stats were far outpacing his refined control. He used to be able to behead demons so swiftly that their bodies took seconds to even notice. Now, the blood sprayed on contact.

It was a sign, subtle but clear.

And it was getting worse.

He clenched his jaw, frustrated but focused.

"I have to clear this stronghold quickly," he muttered, lifting his gaze to the corridor ahead.

"If we can get through at least six today... I might be able to afford a new Art."

The thought of it sent a faint thrill through him.

Not just any Art.

But the first building block to creating his new Art, one that was his and his alone, crafted to tame the storm of stats raging within his body. ƒгeewebnovёl_com

His sword flicked clean with a sharp motion, then vanished back into his inventory. His figure blurred again as he dashed forward, wind screaming in his ears as he finally reached the final chamber, the epicenter of the stronghold.

The moment Leon stepped into the epicenter, his entire body tensed.

It wasn’t fear, it was disgust.

The air shifted around him, thick and pressing, as though he’d passed through an invisible veil and entered a different world entirely. The walls were warped, pulsing faintly like organic matter, the air humming with a low, almost imperceptible vibration that scraped against his nerves.

His skin prickled with every step.

Something was wrong here.

Deeply, fundamentally wrong.

But Leon’s sharp gaze was drawn not to the walls, nor to the darkened corners where shadows pulsed like living things, but to the center of the room.

Floating in the middle of the chamber, suspended in eerie stillness, was a dark orb, pitch black and perfectly smooth, its surface gleaming with a sheen that didn’t reflect light, but devoured it.

It radiated wrongness, an unreality, as if it had no place in the fabric of the world. Leon could feel it in his bones, it wasn’t just demonic.

It was unnatural.

His instincts screamed.

"Destroy it."

A sneer tugged at the edge of his lips.

But before he could move,

CRASH!

A thunderous impact shook the entire room as a hulking figure dropped from the ceiling, stone cracking beneath its weight. Dust spiraled upward from the landing, swirling around the monster that had now revealed itself.

The commander of the stronghold.

It stood nearly three meters tall, its exoskeleton glistening with a sickly, green-black sheen. Muscles coiled beneath its chitinous plating, and its four crimson eyes locked onto Leon with nothing but pure killing intent. Its claws twitched, ready to rip him apart.

The creature exhaled with a low, gurgling growl that reverberated through the chamber.

But Leon?

Leon didn’t flinch.

He simply sighed, low, slow, and sharp, before reaching into his inventory and drawing his blade with a single smooth motion. The sword shimmered slightly in the strange air, resonating with the tension that now gripped the room.

His eyes turned cold like ice and steel.

As a smirk broke across his face, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

"Nice entrance."

And then, with no hesitation, Leon launched forward, sword trailing like a comet of death behind him.

The demon roared and charged in return, claws raised.

Steel met claw.

Light met darkness.

And the battle began.

****

A/N: Okay everyone, I want to extend a huge thank you for reading my book this far! I can’t tell you how EXcited that makes me. On a more serious note, I’d like you all to know that I’ll be releasing a bonus Chapter randomly each week, provided we can maintain a Top 100 Golden Tickets and power Stone ranking. That’s all I wanted to say, and thank you again for reading

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