SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant-Chapter 511: Final Trial [III]

Trafalgar looked around the moment the hunting grounds finished taking shape around him. Wind moved through the trees from both sides, carrying the smell of damp bark, old leaves, and wild mana. He had landed in the forest. Tall trunks rose close together, roots twisting across the ground, branches thick enough to break sightlines after only a few steps.

’So I got the forest.’

He clicked his tongue inwardly.

’I don’t like this zone. If I’m aiming for first place, the mini desert or the lake would be better. Or I go deeper inside and see if the forest hides something worth the trouble.’

Maledicta materialized in his hand. Dark-blue mana gathered first, then the sword took shape in his grip, its familiar weight settling there like it had always belonged. That alone was enough to ease the slight irritation from landing in the wrong zone.

Movement stirred off to his left. Trafalgar turned just enough to catch a few other students through the trees. Some were already forming groups, one carrying a spear, another with a mage’s staff, a third trying to talk fast enough to sound useful before the others left him behind.

’Looks like people are making teams already. Well, that’s normal.’

He had no intention of joining one.

Trafalgar advanced at an easy pace, stepping over roots and cutting through brush without slowing. He did not want some forgettable low-rank monster that would drop after two clean swings. If he wanted first place, he needed something worth bringing back. Something that would actually matter once the directors saw it.

A harsh screech of metal against wood cut through the forest.

He stopped.

Another scrape followed, lower this time, heavier, and a beast burst through the undergrowth to his right. It had the shape of a wolf, but its forelegs were sheathed in dull black metal that looked grown rather than forged, ending in hooked claws long enough to peel bark off a trunk in one rake. Behind it came two more, leaner and uglier, their mouths split too wide, with silver fangs jutting out at uneven angles like broken blades forced through flesh.

Ironclaw wolves.

The first one lunged straight for his throat.

Trafalgar answered with [Crosswind Edge], turning Maledicta sideways in a quick, economical motion. A compressed crescent of air peeled off the blade and cut between two trunks before the wolf had fully left the ground. Leaves scattered. Thin branches snapped. The beast was opened from shoulder to throat and crashed into the dirt in a roll of blood and metal claws.

The other two did not hesitate.

One came low. The other tried to jump across his flank. Trafalgar shifted his footing and sent [Arc Slash] across the clearing. Dark-blue mana spilled from Maledicta in a horizontal wave that sliced forward with enough force to bend the brush in its wake. One wolf caught it across the ribs and slammed into a tree hard enough to crack bark. The second tried to clear it and lost half its body for the effort.

A fourth came from above.

This one was larger, with rust-colored fur and a plate of iron fused across one side of its skull. It launched from the trunk of a tree, claws first, trying to take him from his blind side. Trafalgar’s body curved into [Severance Step], his movement blurring into a crescent dash that bent around the trunk in one fluid arc. He vanished from where he had been standing and reappeared behind the beast with Maledicta already descending. The return strike cut through spine and plated bone alike before the wolf had even landed.

The body hit the ground in two uneven pieces.

Trafalgar exhaled once and kept walking.

That would have been enough in most places. Here, the blood only made things worse.

A low, rumbling growl rolled through the trees ahead, heavy enough to shake loose a few leaves overhead. Branches swayed. The undergrowth snapped apart. What came out of it had once been a bear, though that word barely fit anymore. One shoulder was wrapped in twisted roots hardened like armor. Long thorns ran along its spine in jagged rows. Its claws were thick and pale, more like stripped bone than keratin, and from the ruined socket where one eye should have been, amber sap dripped in slow, sticky lines.

A Thornhide Ursid.

Better.

The monster rose on its hind legs with a guttural roar, and the pressure of its size alone made the ground complain beneath it. Trafalgar’s grip tightened slightly around Maledicta.

Now this was worth cutting down.

The Ursid crashed forward. Each step tore up earth and brush. Its forepaw came first, broad enough to cave in a man’s chest, claws dragging bright lines through the air.

Trafalgar met it head-on with [Morgain’s Linebreaker]. Mana wrapped around Maledicta until the blade hummed, and he drove forward in a straight burst of speed. The charge split the ground under his boots and released a cutting wave ahead of him. It slammed into the Ursid’s chest and shoved the beast backward, splintering the root armor across one side of its body and forcing a roar out of it that carried through half the forest.

The thing took the hit and kept coming.

Good.

It swung lower the second time, faster than something that size had any right to move. Trafalgar slipped past the claw, pivoted on his back foot, and unleashed [Severing Fang]. A sharp diagonal pressure slash tore out from Maledicta with a high metallic hum, carving through bark, fur, and flesh in one clean rising line. The ground beneath the strike split open as well, leaving a raw scar through dirt and roots. Black blood and amber sap burst from the wound together.

The Ursid staggered.

It did not fall.

Before Trafalgar could press in, movement gathered around the clearing again. More wolves. Not three. Not four. A whole pack drawn by the smell of blood. Some prowled through the brush with their metallic claws scraping over roots. Others circled wider, waiting for a bad angle.

Trafalgar let out a quiet breath through his nose.

’Annoying.’ 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

The Ursid charged again while the pack closed from both sides.

Fine.

He answered with [Morgain’s Requiem]. Maledicta moved first, and the rest of him followed. One slash fed the next until dark arcs of mana spread around him in a flowing sword dance, curving outward through the clearing like blue-black crescents painted into the air. Wolves that leapt into it were shredded before they touched the ground. Others were thrown back, torn open across the chest or neck. The outer edges of the technique bit into the Ursid too, carving fresh wounds through its bark plating and leaving bloody grooves across its sides.

By the time the last arc faded, the clearing was painted red.

The Ursid came through it anyway.

Half-limping, half-falling, but still stupid enough to keep trying.

Its forelegs slammed into the ground in a desperate attempt to crush everything in front of it. Trafalgar stepped in and brought Maledicta down with [Earthsplitter]. The first impact landed on the monster’s skull. The second came through the earth itself, a mana shockwave bursting outward beneath the Ursid’s weight. Roots snapped. Dirt and shattered stone jumped into the air. The beast’s body locked up for an instant, stunned by the fracture running under it.

That instant was enough.

Trafalgar drew in mana for [Morgain’s Final Crescent], and the blade darkened until the edge seemed to carry an inverted moon along it. The air around Maledicta warped with pressure. When he swung, the crescent tore across the clearing in a brutal burst, splitting through the Ursid’s chest and ripping straight through the core buried inside it. The monster shuddered violently, its regeneration snuffed out the moment the strike passed through.

Even that was not the end.

One last shape shot from the trees, faster than the others, larger too, an alpha wolf with iron claws, a split jaw, and a mane of thorn-like growths around its neck that made it look almost leonine. It came not at Trafalgar’s front, but at his side, aiming for the opening left by the Ursid’s fall.

Trafalgar turned into it.

He poured the last movement cleanly into [Morgain’s Last Dusk]. Mana flooded Maledicta until the air itself vibrated with a thin, rising hum. The ascending diagonal slash that followed cut upward through the alpha in one merciless motion, parting flesh, metal growth, and sound alike. For a heartbeat the beast remained whole.

Then it separated.

Its body crashed to the clearing floor in two ruined halves, and whatever regenerative force it carried died with it.

The forest quieted.

Leaves drifted down through broken branches. Blood soaked into split earth. The stench of sap, wet fur, and opened bodies hung thick in the air. Trafalgar rolled one shoulder and looked over the mess around him. Better than the usual weak prey. Still not enough to satisfy him if he wanted to be certain of first place.

A dry snap came from behind him.

Trafalgar turned, Maledicta still in hand.

At first he saw only trunks and shade. Then a figure stepped into a thin band of light between the trees, bow already raised, posture tight enough that one more surprise might have made him loose the arrow by accident.

Bartholomew.

He looked pale again. Worse than before, if anything. His fingers were on the string, though the aim wavered between the dead monsters on the ground and Trafalgar himself.

"Barth?" Trafalgar said.

Bartholomew swallowed hard.

"T-Trafalgar?"