SSS-RANK: Super Extraction System-Chapter 29: [29] A Rival’s Return

Chapter 29: [29] A Rival’s Return
The training dummy exploded.
It wasn’t supposed to explode. It was a Mark-IV Kinetic Absorber, designed to take hits from C-Rank strength enhancers. It was meant to wobble, absorb the force, and reset.
But when Leon punched it, he didn’t just hit it with his fist.
His shadow hit it too.
Leon stood in the secluded corner of Training Ground B, staring at the scattered metal and stuffing that used to be a robot. His fist was still extended.
He hadn’t even used a skill. He had just thrown a jab.
But the shadow stretching out from his arm had moved a fraction of a second later, turning into a massive, solidified claw that tore through the dummy’s titanium plating like wet cardboard.
"Damn it," Leon whispered.
He pulled his hand back. The shadow claw retracted, dissolving back into a normal silhouette on the grass. But it didn’t stay still. The edges of his shadow were restless, writhing like snakes in a pit, eager to lash out again.
[ SYSTEM ALERT ]
┏━━━━━━━[ Skill Warning ]━━━━━━━┓
│ Skill: Dominion of the Prince (Passive)
│ Status: Unstable
│ Output: 140% (Leakage Detected)
│
│ Analysis: Your emotional control is insufficient.
│ The shadows are responding to your subconscious aggression.
│
│ Current Control Level: 12%
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
"Insufficient," Leon muttered, wiping sweat from his forehead.
He sat down on a concrete bench. He was exhausted, not physically, but mentally.
It had been a week since he woke up in the med-bay. A week since he absorbed Kain.
His body felt like a coiled spring. His senses were dialed up to eleven. He could hear the heartbeat of a squirrel in a tree fifty meters away. He could smell the ozone of a lightning-type user practicing three fields over.
But the worst part was the presence.
He wasn’t alone in his own head anymore. The Shadow Servants, Iron and the Fallen Marquis were quiet, dormant in his inventory. But the Monarch’s Legacy itself felt heavy. It was a cold, regal pressure that constantly urged him to dominate, to conquer, to silence the noise of the world.
He opened his hand. He tried to summon a small, simple shadow ball.
Instead, the entire bench underneath him turned pitch black. The shadows surged up his legs, forming jagged armor plating.
"No," Leon said, forcing his will onto the darkness. "Down."
The shadows resisted for a second like a petulant child testing its parent before sliding back down to the ground.
[ TUTORIAL TIP ]
A King does not ask. A King decrees. Your hesitation is weakness.
Leon sighed. He swiped the notification away.
"Great. My superpower is giving me attitude."
He closed his eyes, trying to meditate. He needed to lock this aura down before he went back to class. If he walked into a lecture hall leaking this much murderous intent, he’d trigger the school’s defense systems.
Crunch. Crunch.
Footsteps.
Leon didn’t need to open his eyes. His [ Blood Sense ] painted a clear picture in his mind.
Five people. Approaching from the main path.
Four were followers. Weak pulses. Nervous rhythms.
The one in the lead was familiar. The heartbeat was fast, arrogant, but underneath the bravado, there was a stutter of insecurity. The blood smelled of heat and ash.
Damian Horne.
Leon opened his eyes.
Damian stood at the edge of the training field, flanked by his usual sycophants from Class 1. He looked good. His uniform was pressed, his hair perfect, his B-Rank pin polished to a shine.
But there was a nasty glint in his eye. A hunger.
"Well, well," Damian called out, his voice carrying across the field. "The ghost returns."
Leon didn’t stand up. He just watched them approach.
"I heard you were dead, Vale," Damian said, stopping ten feet away. "Or expelled. The rumors were... colorful."
"I was recovering," Leon said calmly.
"Recovering?" Damian laughed. He looked at the destroyed training dummy. "From what? I heard your ’special mission’ was a disaster. Total squad wipe. Everyone died except the rookie who hid in the corner."
Leon’s fingers twitched.
The shadows around the bench flared.
Jinx. Justin. Rhino.
Damian didn’t notice the shadows darkening. He took a step closer, emboldened by Leon’s silence.
"My father is on the board, you know," Damian sneered. "He saw the . ’Catastrophic failure.’ ’Loss of assets.’ That’s what your friends were, Vale. Assets. And you got them killed because you’re weak."
Damian was fishing. He wanted a reaction. He wanted the angry, desperate Leon he had fought in the arena. He wanted to prove that his loss was a fluke, that Leon was broken by the trauma of the mission.
He expected a victim.
Leon looked at Damian.
He really looked at him.
Before the mission, Damian had been a terrifying figure. A B-Rank elite. A wall Leon couldn’t climb.
Now?
Leon saw the sloppy stance. He saw the inefficient flow of mana in Damian’s veins. He saw a child playing with matches.
Leon stood up.
He didn’t rush. He moved with a slow, fluid grace that made no sound.
"Are you done?" Leon asked.
Damian blinked. He frowned. "Excuse me?"
"Are you done talking?" Leon repeated. "Because I’m training. And you’re loud."
Damian’s face flushed red. The humiliation from the arena duel came rushing back.
"You think you’re tough?" Damian shouted. Hands igniting with orange flame. "You think because you got lucky once, you can talk down to me? You’re trash, Vale! You’re a curse! Everyone you touch dies!"
The fire in Damian’s hands roared to life. He stepped forward, raising a fist.
"I should burn you right here. Do the academy a favor."
Leon didn’t raise his hands. He didn’t take a combat stance.
He just... released.
He stopped holding the shadows back. He stopped suppressing the [ Dominion of the Prince ].
[ SKILL ACTIVATED ]
[ DOMINION OF THE PRINCE (PASSIVE) ]
[ RANGE: 10 METERS ]
[ EFFECT: ABSOLUTE SUPPRESSION ]
The temperature on the training field dropped twenty degrees in a split second.
The sunlight seemed to dim. The shadows of the trees, the bench, and Damian himself stretched out, racing toward Leon like iron filings to a magnet.
Leon took one step forward.
Thump.
It felt like a physical hammer hit the group.
Damian’s friends gasped, stumbling back, clutching their chests. They couldn’t breathe. The air felt thick, heavy, like they were underwater.
Damian froze.
The fire in his hands didn’t go out. But it... shrank.
The roaring orange flames turned weak and sputtering. They flickered, bowing away from Leon as if the fire itself was afraid of the dark.
"What..." Damian gasped. He looked at his hands. "What are you doing?"
Leon took another step.
His eyes flashed violet.
To Damian, Leon didn’t look like a student anymore.
He looked like a giant. A towering silhouette of black smoke and red eyes. Behind Leon, the shadow on the grass twisted, forming the vague, terrifying shape of a throne.
"You called me weak," Leon said softly. His voice didn’t echo. It was swallowed by the dark.
He stopped inches from Damian.
He looked down at the B-Rank elite.
"You have no idea what weak is."
Damian tried to move. He tried to throw the fireball.
But his body wouldn’t obey. His instincts, the primal part of his brain that evolved to run from predators screamed at him to freeze.
Leon could hear Damian’s heart. It was beating so fast it sounded like a hummingbird.
Fear. Pure, unadulterated terror.
Leon raised a hand slowly.
Damian flinched, squeezing his eyes shut, expecting a blow.
Leon reached past him. He grabbed the B-Rank pin on Damian’s chest.
He didn’t rip it off. He just flicked it with his finger.
Clink.
"Go away, Damian," Leon whispered. "Before I forget that we’re supposed to be students."
Leon dropped his hand. He pulled the Dominion back, reining in the aura.
The pressure vanished.
Damian gasped, sucking in air like a drowning man breaking the surface. His legs gave out. He collapsed onto the grass, trembling uncontrollably.
His fire had gone out completely.
His friends were too scared to help him. They stared at Leon with wide, horrified eyes.
Leon didn’t look back.
He turned and walked away, heading toward the exit of the training grounds. His shadow trailed behind him, long and dark, swallowing the light as he passed.
He left Damian Horne kneeling in the dirt, broken not by a punch, but by the realization of just how small he really was.
Leon checked his interface as he walked.
┏━━━━━━━[ Skill Mastery ]━━━━━━━┓
│ Skill: Dominion of the Prince
│ Control: 15% (+3%)
│
│ Note: Intimidation successful.
│ The shadows are pleased.
┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛
"Pleased," Leon scoffed quietly.
He walked into the shade of the academy buildings.
He had won the confrontation. He had established his dominance.
But as he walked through the crowded hallway, students parting around him like water without knowing why, Leon felt the truth of his new reality.
Damian was a rival. A bully.
But Leon?
Leon was a king in exile. And kings didn’t have rivals.
They had subjects. And they had enemies.
And the real enemies were waiting in the dark.