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Chapter 17 - Just what are You

"Gaaah! Ahhhh!" Her breathing was heavy, loud maybe, and most especially ragged. It was hard to take in air and even much harder to let it out.

Tessa was still more than exhausted from the overuse caused by her ability. This left her standing and watching the battle unfold.

She had seen Drake getting attacked and being saved by Kyle, which calmed her nerves.

Then the other S-ranked were starting to lose against the Ice Banshee. If she didn't join the battle soon, they would lose... or so she thought.

As though corresponding with the moment she blinked, her environment immediately changed, and then she was at the sidelines, with the other awakened, far away from the crater created by the battle.

'What's going on?' Tessa asked herself in agitation.

There was certainly no way for her to have appeared here all of a sudden... "Is it some kind of ability?" she mumbled to herself. But even if it were, she should have at least felt something.

A number of murmurs erupted from her side, and Tessa, out of utter anxiety, craned her neck to see what was going on.

To her fears, she wasn't the only one this had happened to. A few faces she recognized were among the people teleported out of the battlefield.

All but—

"Drake!" Tessa screamed at the top of her lungs, lunging forward to hurry back into the battlefield.

Drake was merely a summoner, and it was sure he would die from a one-on-one battle against the boss that none of them had been able to take down, even as a team.

'What the hell is he thinking about—'

She rambled in her thoughts, but before she could get too far, as she entered the crater, a small explosion occurred in the distance, and the familiar sound of the system rang in her head.

{Ding!}

{Boss monster defeated}

This notification came as a shock, stunning her in a frozen state.

For a moment, Tessa couldn't help but think she had gone mad or was hearing things, given how exhausted she had become from overusing her ability.

However, that wasn't the case.

The other S-ranked were also in shock, as none of them but Kyle had a good idea of what had occurred when they were teleported out of the war grounds.

Even Kyle had his expression dumbfounded at this point. "Even if he could win, I didn't expect it to be this fast."

Apart from that, none other but Luna knew.

Luna folded her hands, and a grin appeared on her expression. 'He's even more insane than I thought,' she recalled the plan between her and Drake at the last second.

She had the ability to communicate through the minds of particular people she had marked. That was how he had explained the plan to her.

'Even I doubted he could pull this off, but he really is insane.'

The other awakened present there all yelled in celebration at the notification, happily jumping on each other and hugging out in happiness.

Soon, chants began to rise from them.

"Hail the S-ranked awakened!"

"Hail the S-ranked Cohort!"

Meanwhile—

His hands felt heavy, dead maybe—so cold and even more numb.

His body felt as though the life was quickly draining out of him, and for some reason, he could barely keep his consciousness or think properly.

{Overexertion of your ability detected: mind tear has occurred}

Drake frowned at the notification. 'So that's what it is—my talent's weakness.'

He let out a sigh, dimming his eyes in frustration as he reclined his back against a large ice pillar. "At least I got rewarded for killing the Dungeon King."

A few moments later, a set of footfalls drew closer to Drake Drakon. He opened his eyes and glared toward whoever approached him.

It was Kyle and Tessa.

Tessa, immediately after seeing him, was the first to react—jumping forward and landing on him hard as she embraced him tightly.

"Idiot! You almost died!" Tessa yelled with a mix of sadness and anger in her tone.

Drake did not reply, simply patting her on the back.

"You actually pulled it off," Kyle laughed in a low tone, shaking his head as he placed his hands on his waist, a bit weary. "What sort of insane best friend do I have?"

Drake shrugged. "I killed the King at least."

Kyle smiled. "And you also got a hole in your stomach—"

He stopped for a moment as his eyes strayed to the new swirling portal just a few meters off in the crater.

"You might have destroyed the core and the King altogether, but at the very least, you managed to save everyone here." Kyle nodded, establishing within that if Drake hadn't come when he did, all of them would have met their demise—either from the drastically reducing temperature or the King's power.

Drake let a silence hang in the air for a while.

Then he spoke, "Do me a favor and keep this between us."

Kyle nodded. "It's Tessa you'll have to tell that to, not me."

Turning to Tessa, who was already sleeping on Drake, the two smiled in amusement.

The strain of her ability must have gotten to her, Drake assumed. At least that was as far as he could think before his head began to ache from the overexertion of his talent.

Kyle, on the other hand, had his mind focused on something much different. Ever since coming to meet Drake and seeing the aftermath of his battle with the King—a small crater of ash and nothingness...

So this was the power of an SSS-rank summoner.

'This is nothing short of utter terror.'

Drake Drakon... just what are you?

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