Re-Awakened :I Ascend as an SSS-Ranked Dragon Summoner

"Lucas, get away from here!" Cassandra’s voice cracked with desperation as she struggled to her knees, blood streaming from her broken nose. "Are the others alive? Pierce—how is Pierce? Everyone else?"

Lucas landed hard beside Storm, electricity still crackling around his form like a living aura. His face was grim, haunted by something that went beyond the carnage spread across this killing field. "We can account for some of them," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "But Noah... Noah was taken."

The words hit Cassandra like a physical blow. Noah gone? The first SSS ranked soldier in years of humanity looking for one just gone? Besides being the one with the most potential amongst human, he had a one of a kind mind. And to be fair, she was starting to feel attached to all of them.

Kruel’s laughter erupted across the battlefield, a sound like breaking glass mixed with thunder. "Truly remarkable!" he called out, clapping his hands slowly in mock appreciation. "The little humans keep coming, one after another, like insects drawn to flame. Do you know what I find most amusing about your species?"

He gestured broadly at the devastation around them, the bodies of fallen Vanguard soldiers scattered like broken dolls. "You never learn when you’re outclassed. Even now, watching your friends die, you still think you have a chance."

Storm’s massive head turned toward Kruel, electric blue eyes narrowing to slits. Ice crystals began forming along the wyvern’s scales, and the temperature around them dropped ten degrees in as many seconds.

"But this," Kruel continued, his attention shifting to the magnificent creature before him, "this is genuinely interesting. According to your planet’s historical records, beasts of this magnitude went extinct millions of years ago. Dragons, wyverns, the great serpents of the deep—all gone, turned to fossil fuel for your primitive machines."

He took a step closer to Storm, and the wyvern’s wings spread wide in warning, each membrane crackling with contained lightning. The span was enormous—nearly creating a canopy around them from tip to tip, casting shadows that swallowed entire sections of the battlefield.

"So tell me," Kruel said, his voice taking on an almost childlike curiosity, "how did you manage to find one? Did you dig it up from some forgotten glacier? Clone it from ancient DNA? Or..." His eyes lit up with sudden understanding. "Ah, I see. This is connected to your friend who was ’taken,’ isn’t it? Some kind of summoning ability? What is the young soldier’s name, Noah, correct?"

Storm’s response was a roar that shattered the air like a sonic boom, ice and lightning streaming from his maw in a devastating display of raw power. The blast carved a trench fifty feet long in the earth between them, turning stone to slag and sand to glass.

Kruel barely tilted his head to avoid the attack. "Magnificent. I can feel the energy radiating from you, beast. Such power, such potential..." His smile widened, revealing teeth that gleamed like polished bone. "I’m going to have to subdue you for myself."

What happened next was almost too fast to follow.