SSS-Ranked Awakening: I Can Only Summon Mythical Beasts - Chapter 424 424: Clearing The Tunnel
The silence stretched, filled only by Fenrir’s growls and the wet squelch of Luton devouring. Lyone stood rigid, trembling—not from fear of the beasts this time, but from Damien’s judgment.
Then Damien’s shoulders loosened with a sigh. His voice came softer, but no less sharp.
“You’ve grown bolder, Lyone. I’ll give you that.” He stepped closer until they stood face to face, torchlight flickering between them. “But boldness without restraint is suicide. Do you understand that?”
Lyone swallowed hard. His lips parted, closed, then opened again. “…Yes.”
Damien’s eyes held him for another long beat, then softened ever so slightly. He placed a hand on Lyone’s shoulder.
“Good. Because you’re not going back. Not yet.”
Lyone blinked in shock. “W-what?”
“Since you want to help so much, you’ll help me in clearing this tunnel.” Damien’s tone left no room for debate. “You’ll stay close to me. You’ll fight. But you’ll listen. Every mistake you make here could kill us both, so treat my words as law. Understood?”
The boy’s heart thudded, but he straightened his back and nodded fiercely. “Understood.”
“Good.” Damien’s lips curved in the faintest of smiles. “Then let’s begin.”
The tunnels rumbled with life, shadows shifting as new creatures clawed through stone.
Arielle had been right to call Delwig’s defenses strong, but these caverns were treacherous—tight, winding, and riddled with unnatural pathways. The beasts used them like veins through a body, spilling through whenever the barriers faltered.
Fenrir was already pushing against the walls with his size, massive frame scraping stone. Damien clicked his tongue. “Too cramped.” With a sharp motion of his fingers and a mental note to his system, Fenrir dissolved back into essence. In his place, Damien spread his palm wide, summoning Aquila.
The griffin burst into the tunnel in a blaze of sharp feathers and gleaming talons, wings folding close to avoid scraping the walls. Its golden eyes burned with feral intelligence, beak clicking as it surveyed the dark ahead.
“Luton, you know your job,” Damien murmured. The slime gurgled in reply, oozing ahead like a silent scout. Aquila flexed its wings, eager, while Damien rolled his wrist to dismiss Fenrir fully.
“These three summons,” Damien said to Lyone. “Each capable of fighting on its own. Fenrir for brute force, Luton for containment, Aquila for speed and vision. Remember this lesson on case you ever get to use summons.”
“Your summons are not pets. They are companions even more than they are weapons. Treat them as such.”
Lyone nodded quickly, committing every word to memory.
They moved.
The first beast that lunged at them—a Grade Seven, its body swollen with tumorous essence—was pinned instantly by Aquila’s talons. The griffin slammed it into the wall, crushing its skull.
“Finish it!” Damien barked.
Lyone hesitated only a heartbeat before driving his blade into the exposed chest. The monster screeched, essence spilling out in a shimmer of red light before collapsing.
“Now—extract.”
Damien knelt beside the corpse, demonstrating with a swift slice and precise press of his fingers. He pulled free the essence core, small and sickly pulsing with demonic taint. He held it out to Lyone.
“Take it. Feel its weight. Learn it.”
Lyone accepted the core with both hands, staring at it as if it held answers to the world. His chest rose and fell quickly, but his eyes were sharp. “It feels… wrong.”
“Good. That’s demonic corruption. Recognize it so you’ll never mistake it. Now keep moving.”
The tunnels grew louder with the cries of men and monsters alike. Echoes of warriors calling for aid ricocheted through the stone. Damien led them swiftly toward the noise, his summons carving paths ahead.
Luton engulfed a smaller beast that had broken through the wall, swallowing it whole before spitting out its mangled remains, leaving only the core intact. Lyone retrieved it under Damien’s watchful eye.
Aquila slashed down another, its feathers bristling with mana sharpness, cutting through demonic flesh like paper.
Each time, Damien forced Lyone to deal the final strike, to bloody his hands. Each time, he made the boy extract the core, correcting his technique with curt commands.
“Not there—closer to the spine. Good. Don’t crack it, or it’s useless.”
Sweat slicked Lyone’s brow, but his movements grew steadier with each kill. His face hardened with a determination Damien hadn’t seen before.
“You’re learning,” Damien said quietly.
The boy’s chest swelled at the praise, though he tried not to show it.
Ahead, the tunnel widened into a cavern. Torches flickered dimly where warriors had once fought, but the ground was littered now with blood and broken weapons. The cries they’d heard earlier were fainter—desperate, dying.
“Damn it,” Damien muttered, scanning the bodies.
From the far side of the cavern, new beasts poured in—mutated wolves, their fur stripped away, leaving glistening muscle laced with black essence. At least four of them.
Damien’s hand twitched toward his sword, but then he glanced at Lyone.
“You take the first.”
Lyone’s eyes widened. “Alone?”
“You won’t be alone.” Damien motioned to Aquila. “Aquila will keep you alive. But the kill is yours. Now move.”
The boy’s throat bobbed, but he nodded. He tightened his grip on the sword and stepped forward.
The wolf-beast snarled, eyes glowing crimson, then lunged. Aquila swooped low, claws raking across its flank to stagger it. Lyone seized the opening, thrusting his blade deep into its chest. The creature howled, thrashing, but he held on, gritting his teeth until the beast collapsed under its own weight.
He yanked the blade free, panting, his arms trembling. But when he turned to Damien, his eyes were blazing.
Damien gave a single approving nod. “Better.”
The other wolves charged, but Fenrir reemerged in a flash of blue essence, smashing one into the ground. Luton wrapped around another, constricting until its body popped with a wet crack. Damien cut down the last himself, swift and clean.
The cavern stank of blood and burnt essence, silence falling once more.
Damien placed a hand on Lyone’s shoulder, steady and firm. “You’re not ready. Not yet. But today you took a step closer.”
Lyone nodded fiercely, clutching the cores he had extracted.
“Now,” Damien said, glancing toward the faint glow of light at the end of the tunnel, “let’s get out before more come.”
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A/N: Just so you know, I’m about to be shameless!!
Hi there readers. Your shameless author is back. Fully! No more excuses and no more inconsistencies.
I’m currently working on flushing out all my privilege chapters and replacing them with new ones and to compensate for the previous purchases that ended up being in vain, I reduced the prices for the privilege tiers.
Here comes my shamelessness… I need your support!!
Power stones!!
Golden Tickets!!
Comments!!
Gifts!!(Especially castles. Yessss, castles!!)
All of these are welcome. They’ll serve to inform me that I still have readers(which I’m sure I do).
«Wipes phantom tears away.»
Anyways, thank you all for having stayed this far and I hope to continue writing chapters you all will enjoy. I Love You Guys!!(No homo… Lol)
