SSS Awakening : I can Adapt to Everything-Chapter 8: A - Rank Skill

The first Calamity Beast pushed through the gate like it was being born.

The black circle at the intersection warped around a mass that wasn’t supposed to fit through — space bending, stretching, then snapping back as something clawed its way into the world and landed on the asphalt with a crunch that Hide felt in his teeth.

It was big. two meters at the shoulder, maybe more. Its body was long and low, somewhere between a cat and a reptile, all lean muscle wrapped in plates of jagged, glassy material that pulsed faintly with a sick violet light.

Its head was wrong and filled with too many eyes, all of them narrow and red, arranged in a fan across its skull. When it opened its mouth, Hide could see rows of teeth that weren’t teeth so much as blades.

The second one followed. Then a third.

They spilled out of the gate one after another like a pack of wolves. Their claws hit the road and the mana in the air spiked so sharply Hide felt a pressure behind his eyes.

His heart hammered once.

Then again.

’Calamity Beasts.’

His hands curled into fists slowly, nails digging into his palms. These were Calamity beasts he had dreamed of killing all his life.

Always watching from afar as a useless bystander, but now he had the means to. So why not? It was only right that he kill them now.

Every last one of them.

One of the beasts lifted its head.

Six red eyes fixed on him.

For a moment, time narrowed to the line between them. Hide standing in the middle of the street in a white shirt and black pants, car upside down behind him, blood pooling under crumpled metal. The beast crouched at the far end of the road, its breath a visible shimmer in the mana-heavy air.

It snarled once and then charged.

Most people would have moved back and run away.

It was the only right thing to do In front of a gate whose threat level was unknown, but instead Hide stepped forward.

His lips peeled back from his teeth in something that might, in kinder circumstances, have been called a smile. It wasn’t. It was too wide, too sharp... the kind of expression you saw on something in a dark corner right before it lunged.

"Finally," he whispered. His voice shook, but not with fear. "You’re here."

Heat flushed through his limbs, a surge that wasn’t mana. His perception snapped into focus. The world slowed by a fraction.

The beast’s charge, which had been a blur a heartbeat ago, resolved into individual frames: the flex of its front claws, the roll of its shoulders, the way its jaw opened a fraction wider as it prepared to bite through him.

He ran straight at it.

The distance between them closed.

The first swipe came low, a blur of violet-lit claws that should have taken his legs off.

Hide jumped, mistimed by half a fraction and felt one claw glance off his shin. He tumbled and hit the road in a three-point landing that almost collapsed under him.

He felt blood flow down from a wound he had just received and it was intentional. That was what he needed to activate the Passive skill.

And as he expected the system screen bloomed in front of him.

[Adaptive Override — Analysis Active]

Physical Injury on body detected

Location: Lower leg

Source: Mana Imbued Metal Claws

Severity: Moderate laceration

System query: Initiate adaptation sequence for this damage type?

[Awaiting command.]

Hide’s face lit up with a smile, and he straightened his body. And said through gritted teeth.

"EVOLVE"

[Adapting - 0%]

[10%]

The beast didn’t slow down and instead came towards him once again. It swung again after closing the distance, this time higher, the glassy plates along its foreleg flaring with light. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Where the claws passed, the air itself seemed to shimmer with violet energy hanging in space.

Hide threw himself sideways.

[40%]

But one of the beast’s claw caught him in the forearm, this time properly and he felt pain like never before.

It was like having a strip of flesh peeled away and cauterized at the same time. He hit the ground on his side, vision flashing white for an instant.

He tasted blood.

The beast’s shadow fell over him as it pivoted for the next strike.

The System’s text burned across his vision.

[60%]

The beast lunged.

Hide didn’t roll away and instead waited.

The claws came down and he brought his legs up, knowing it was a bad idea, knowing there was no way his bones would hold after the impact with the beasts body.

Still he kicked the beast in the crotch, or where it was supposed to be. His legs felt numb...

He screamed — once. The sound tore itself out of him and was cut off as he bit down on it.

The beast swayed and snarled as it visibly took damage from that.

[80%]

It steadied itself pretty soon and snarled again, a sound of simple animal satisfaction. Prey that didn’t run. Prey that didn’t broke easily.

As a reply, Hide laughed.

It was not a sane sound.

It bubbled up from somewhere ugly and deep, the place where he kept the memory of a beast’s hand through his stomach and his mother’s body on the floor.

He pushed himself up on legs that shook and stood in front of the car — between the beast and the overturned vehicle.

"That all you’ve got?" His voice was hoarse, broken around the edges, but the words were clear. "Come on, bastard. Try harder." He screamed.

[100%]

[Adaptive Override — Adaptation Complete]

Analysis: Complete.

Counter-Skill Generated:

[Abyssal Scale Carapace —Rank A (Active)]

– Manifest dark-steel scales across Host’s body in response to lethal threats.

– Scales drastically increase physical defense and resist spatial shear / cutting-type damage.

– The Scales absorb 50% of the physical damage and suppress it.

’As Expected... I got a new skill and its A rank.’

The beast obliged, to Hide’s earlier words and came in with its jaws this time, aiming to bite him in half.