SSS Awakening: Starting With Infinite Soul Copy

"It’s fast!"

White whispered, face knitted to points, but Rukun was faster.

The young man was already high into the air, though not without injury.

Blood erupted from his left leg, from a deep cut that cleaved down from his knee and down to his ankle.

"Not fast enough!"

Rukun roared out with a grin, and both of his hands spread outwards.

The air before him quivered intensely, red blades appearing all over, and in the next moment—

"Malevolent Art: Hundred Blood Cuts!"

SLICE

SLICE

SLICE

A droning sound filled the air as blades sliced through it, racing toward Inumaki.

He teleported away, reappearing elsewhere, but the blades, almost as if they had a will of their own, pressed on, chasing after him.

The claw on the ground rose back up, targeting Rukun, who raised both hands into the air.

It shot forward towards him, and at the same time, a single large red blade manifested out of thin air, right in Rukun’s hands.

"Malevolent Art: Cleaving Arc!"

BOOOOOOM!

He cleaved down, blade and shadow claw colliding.

The entire battle stage shook from the force of the attack, blowing both back.

Rukun’s feet dragged on the ground for four seconds, only for his eyes to widen at the fifth.

All of a sudden, he jerked his body horizontally to the ground.

VROOOM!

The air shook as a kick slammed towards the back of Rukun’s head, which he barely dodged.

Somersaulting on the ground, he exerted strength on his arm, sending himself high into the air, then curled into a ball.

This enabled him to dodge the claw aimed at his back, though blood still sprayed as a shallow cut appeared.

He landed crouched, then rose to his feet, looking back at Inumaki, who now had his claw phantom hovering behind him.

"You might be 2nd on the ranking, but I’m only 6th because I choose not to be a psychopathic killing bastard after I’ve already made the test marks."

Rukun claimed with a grin, raising his hands to call forth his blade, but his face changed when he noticed nothing happened.

He tried to form new blades with his mind, but the air remained blank, with no sign of connection.

"What’s wrong? I still have energ..."

He didn’t complete those words when his knees gave out, and he knelt on the ground.

STEP

STEP

STEP

The sound of footsteps echoed out as he looked up and found Inumaki standing there before him with an expressionless face.

Rukun, in that moment, felt nothing more than to punch that face, but his muscles refused to move an inch.

Inumaki’s hands reached out slightly, and the gigantic claw mimicked his movement, grabbing Rukun by his jaw and raising him high into the air.

"You’re 6th... because you’re weak. Just like your Malevolent Family is the last of the Big Four."

Inumaki claimed, before he made a flinging motion, and Rukun was violently thrown away, slamming onto the battle stage five times before crashing into the edge of the stadium.

He was knocked out cold!

"Winner! Inumaki Horaga!"

The teacher called out as silence covered the hall.

They had no idea what had happened, but White knew.

’It was the claw.’

He thought quietly to himself.

’The claw mark drained Rukun’s energy from the cut it made on his leg. One cut and your energy begins draining.’

He took a sharp inhale from that.

Not only was the claw phantom devastatingly fast and incredibly powerful, but if it made one cut on you, your energy would begin to drain.

The only way to survive fighting Inumaki was either to make sure the claw never touched you or to knock him out before your energy was fully drained.

The latter would be difficult, as the guy could teleport!

"A summoned claw that can drain energy and a teleporting ability to give him just enough time to make the claw toxin work on you."

"That’s a terrifying addition."

A staff official came in, carrying the unconscious Rukun out of the hall to the hospital.

The Battle Instructor turned to the panel and called out,

"Last Fight for the Day! White Sinclaw Vs Gustav Gione."

All of a sudden, murmurs exploded through the hall.

"Gustav Gione!"

"Like the Gustav Gione!?"

"He’s the 1st on the ranking test."

"Not just first, he had double the points required to pass the test. How else could he have 500 points on the ranking!"

White could hear all of the murmurs and watched as a young man leisurely rose to his feet and walked down to the battle stage.

He was tall.

The tallest of them, standing at a clear 2 meters in height, with golden hair and eyes.

He seemed like some perfect model from Earth, and what was more, he was the strongest, making the perfect girl’s dream.

White didn’t dally, also rising and going down.

The murmurs of him made him grin on hearing—

"White Sinclaw? I’ve never heard of that name before."

"White Sinclaw. Isn’t that guy also in the top 10 point-ranking?"

"He is. He’s ranked 7th."

"The 7th vs the 1st. Tsk, talk of being unfairly outclassed."

"How long do you think he’ll last?"

"Last? I’m hoping the instructor can step in quickly enough before he dies!"

__

[Hahahaha]

The system notification blinked, mocking White, whose brows quivered helplessly.

’Tch, these hopeless bastards!’

He thought in his mind, climbing up to the battle stage too.

The instructor looked at both of them, obviously ready, and he ordered,

"BEGIN!"

None of them made a move.

White looked up into the young man’s golden eyes, and in them he could see pure boredom, as if he could yawn at any moment.

’He can’t be for real.’

His thoughts were confirmed when his mouth opened, and he yawned deeply before focusing back on White.

"Don’t be afraid. Go on, I’ll allow you to make the first move."

Gustav said, seemingly encouraging, though it was plain to any ear that he was more or less mocking White.

Instead of anger, White grinned instead.

"Hey system,"

[Limitless Body Activated!]

It reported, reading his mind, and in the next moment,

FLICKER

A flicker of blue light appeared all around White, who began glowing.

Instead of veins like normal, this time it was runic lines that spread over his body surface like tattoos, and the notification flashed.

[New Limitless Effect: All Stats Have Been Tripled!]

Taking a step forward,

BOOOM!

A crack marred the battle stage as White burst forward.

Jerking both hands backward, blue light burned from his fists as he punched out both fists at the same time.

KAAABOOOOOM!