SSS Awakening: I Can Class Change at will

Chapter 555: Perfect Plans Don’t Exist

Klein had been the perfect Ascender.

He had directed the crowds with warmth. He had overseen the tournament with a guiding hand.

He had told the competitors to remain on their pillars in a subtle, encouraging tone that carried no suspicion whatsoever. When the attacks came and the pillars turned out to be fortresses, the competitors had thanked their stars for staying put.

Every element of the operation had been coordinated perfectly. As if the Association had a response to everything the dark organisation were going to throw at them.

And yet, Ace had a counter for everything.

The corpses rising into flight. The scattered detonation trajectories. Every unexpected variable that emerged during the assault had been met with a response calibrated so smoothly that it looked improvised only to casuals. Ace had been prepared for adaptation because the dark organization had built its entire operation around Klein’s inside position.

There had been one flaw.

Klein and Ace hadn’t accounted for Moon’s suspicion over the lives gained, and his ability to decipher explosive runes on the fly.

The original plan had been elegant. The dark organization’s ground force wouldn’t have been sacrificing themselves at random.

Their elites had been directed to spread themselves across the arena floor, engaging competitors near the pillars, drawing the bracket into overlapping combat zones. Once the elites were in position, Ace would have activated the bomb inside each elite. They would have detonated simultaneously, killing every competitor sheltering behind pillar defenses and shredding the survivors that retreated with a synchronized blast wave.

Two hundred fortresses turned into two hundred coffins in a single instant. Then, it was a matter of time before the Ascenders fell. Klein would just follow his plan and strike when it mattered.

It was a plan that only worked if the runes remained a secret. The dark organisation had assumed no Evolver in the bracket had the knowledge or the perception to identify what the bones actually were.

Runes at that level of sophistication were understood by fewer than a dozen craftsmen in Second Order.

Moon had recognized it using the Eye of Truth.

The plan had collapsed instantly.

Ace had improvised beautifully after that. His personal control of the corpses, his manipulation of the barrage after Alaric prepared to intercept. But even Ace couldn’t repair the damage.

♢♢♢♢

Moon’s attention returned to Ace.

Getting involved in the Ascender-tier fight had been necessary. Had Klein’s ambush landed, Sierra would be dead and the Association’s response force would have collapsed inward on itself. Moon’s warning through Kael had been the only lever available to prevent it.

Now that lever had been pulled, his attention returned back to Ace.

Ace had also figured out that the assassination attempt failed. Yet, his expression didn’t change in the slightest.

Only a dozen corpses remained under his control. The rest had already been detonated by their counter-fire or torn apart by Alaric’s golden blades.

Ace lifted his hand and sent the last of them tearing toward the prodigy.

Alaric’s swords moved as one.

The golden blades scattered outward, each one intercepting a corpse in mid-flight. The detonations rippled across the sky in a chain of overlapping shock waves, smoke pouring outward in thick grey clouds that filled the arena and obscured everything within two hundred meters of the impact zone.

Moon immediately cast a wind spell in a wide sweeping current. The gust rolled across the arena floor and pushed the smoke aside, clearing sight lines.

The battlefield revealed itself again.

"They’re already here."

Behind Ace, dozens of masked figures had appeared.

Their auras were much heavier than their predecessors.

The real force had arrived.

Alaric stepped forward, positioning himself at the front of the battered Evolvers who had survived the corpse barrage with his sword raised.

The remaining bracket clustered loosely behind him, their eyes locked on the reinforcements behind Ace.

Ace stood at the front of his own new formation, his smile back in place.

"You’re not the only one with backup."

Moon glanced past him.

Behind Alaric, figures began to rush from the the chaotic stand. Ranging from Evolvers to Surpassers. They were fewer in number than Ace’s reinforcements, but they were still a force to be reckoned with.

The Association’s real response team had arrived.

Lightning crackled in Moon’s hands, ready for the battle that was about to begin.

Alaric didn’t wait for Ace.

Golden light exploded from his body. Dozens of swords formed behind him. Then, his body exploded forward with Radiant Step, closing the gap in a single blinding streak.

Ace smirked and moved to meet him.

They clashed in the middle of the arena. The impact sent a shockwave outward that broke both formations at once, fighters on both sides surging forward into the opening.

Needless to say, chaos erupted.

Spells filled the air again. Steel met steel across a dozen engagements. The eastern responders and the western reinforcements crashed into each other in a scattered brawl that spread across the rubble in every direction.

Five figures moved on Moon before the dust settled.

Four-Star Evolvers, all of them, closing in from every angle around his position on the broken pillar.

Their auras were heavy, and their eyes carried an ugly look.

Kael who was just meters away from Moon, immediately asked, "Do you need help with them?"

"No. Focus on those coming for you."

Kael nodded, his eyes landing on two mages that were already casting their spells.

"Don’t die now." Kael said, before creating distance between himself and Moon. Avoiding the opportunity for the enemies to deal collateral damage.

"Cockroaches don’t die easily."

One of the elites spat on the rubble at Moon’s feet, "So this is the boy the master wants. Looks smaller in person."

"Smells worse too..."

"Hey, trash. Remember what your girlfriend called you before she dumped you? I bet you do. I bet you cry about it every night. You just threw a tantrum about it not so long ago...hehe"

"I heard his parents didn’t even show up when he awakened."

"Well yeah, because they are dead. Haha!" Another one of them laughed, "You’re gonna scream for us, boy. We’re gonna take our time."