SSS-Rank Talent: Super Upgrade System-Chapter 73: Close Combat Technique!

The Dark Forest groaned under the oppressive weight of the battle.

Ayra, a crimson meteor fueled by her S-Grade [Primal Fury Berserker] talent and the potent energy of the Golden Sun-Kissed Fruit, was a whirlwind of destructive force.

Her great-axe, a blur of polished steel, cut through the dim air with precision, each strike against the S-Grade Dark Cloud Leopard landing with the force of a thunderclap.

"Boom! KRA-SHUNK!"

The ground beneath them fractured and buckled with every earth-shattering blow, sending showers of black moss and splintered obsidian flying.

But the Dark Cloud Leopard was a true apex predator of the Yin region.

Level 17, its obsidian fur seemed to drink the faint light, making it a flickering phantom in the gloom.

Its movements were impossibly fast, a deadly dance of shadows and tearing claws.

Its [Void Pounce] enabled it to blink across short distances, vanishing and reappearing to unleash vicious strikes with its [Claws of Eternal Twilight].

These attacks pierced through portions of Ayra’s formidable berserker defenses, leaving behind shimmering, dark wounds that throbbed with a malignant Shadowblight energy.

"Ayra, hold on!" Lia’s voice, though strained, cut through the din.

Her A-Grade Staff pulsed with a vibrant emerald light as she channeled her [Lifeweave Affinity].

Ribbons of pure life energy wrapped around Ayra, knitting together the shadowy gashes.

Lia’s healing, potent as it was, was fighting an uphill battle against the Leopard’s relentless assault and its debilitating curse.

"I’m... fine!" Ayra roared, her voice hoarse, her crimson aura flickering like a dying flame. She was taking a brutal beating.

The Leopard was simply too fast, its attacks too precise, its shadowy defenses too resilient.

Her axe strikes, powerful enough to shatter stone and hurl lesser beasts aside, often glanced off its shifting, shadow-cloaked hide or were parried by claws wreathed in dark energy.

She was losing stamina rapidly, the Berserker rage starting to wane against the constant pain and the draining Shadowblight.

"Boom!"

The Leopard used its [Shadow Maul], a devastating combination of speed and power, slamming into Ayra and sending her crashing through a thicket of obsidian trees.

The wind shrieked as she flew, landing heavily in a shower of shattered rock and splintered wood.

"Ayra!" Lia cried out, rushing to her side, her staff glowing desperately.

It was at this precise moment that Daniel arrived, a silent, almost invisible distortion in the gloom.

His A+-Grade [Shadow Glide+] had carried him through the forest at a speed that left the wind gasping miles behind.

He absorbed the scene in a heartbeat: Ayra, battered and bleeding, struggling to stand; Lia, pale with exhaustion, channeling healing energy into her fallen teammate; and the Dark Cloud Leopard, a magnificent, menacing silhouette of shadowy death, turning its keen, S-Grade green eyes toward Lia, having sensed a more vulnerable target.

This was the moment Daniel had been waiting for, a chance to truly test his close-combat prowess without the safety net of ranged attacks or the overwhelming area denial of his larger abilities.

He needed to feel the impact, the exchange, the raw physical confrontation. This S-Grade beast was the perfect, if terrifying, sparring partner.

He activated his A-Grade [Voidwalk]. The last vestiges of his visible form dissolved, his scent vanished, his aura became a nullity.

Even his breathing seemed to merge with the oppressive silence of the Dark Forest. He was a ghost, a phantom, an unseen predator stalking the ultimate predator.

The Dark Cloud Leopard, its attention now fully on Lia, gathered itself for a [Void Pounce], its shadowy form condensing, ready to teleport and deliver a killing blow.

Lia braced herself, her staff raised, a beacon of defiant emerald light in the encroaching darkness.

Daniel moved. He didn’t rush; he flowed, a silent current in the still air.

He appeared directly behind the Leopard just as it began its teleport. He activated his B-Grade [Savage Might].

"Boom!"

A subtle, internal explosion of power surged through Daniel’s limbs.

His muscles, already incredibly dense from his Level 6 status and countless assimilations, hardened further, his Strength doubling, his Vitality surging.

He harnessed the nascent inferno of his S-Grade [Solar Flare Fist Art], not its full cataclysmic force, but the focused, burning core of its power, channeling it into his A-Grade Kinetic Void Gauntlets, which thrummed with eager anticipation.

Ayra, struggling to her knees, her vision blurry, sensed a terrifying surge of power.

"Lia! Look out!" she croaked, thinking the Leopard was unleashing some kind of ultimate attack.

"It’s... it’s going to blow!" She instinctively tried to shield Lia, her berserker instincts overriding her own injuries.

Daniel, still wreathed in the absolute stealth of [Voidwalk], unleashed his strike.

It was a single, perfectly aimed punch, targeting the base of the Dark Cloud Leopard’s skull, a spot his [Aura Sense+] had identified as a potential nexus of its shadowy energy.

His fist, glowing with the contained white-hot fury of a miniature sun, connected.

"BOOM! KRA-KA-THOOOOOM!"

The sound wasn’t just a physical impact; it was a sonic cataclysm that ripped through the Dark Forest.

The ground at the impact point didn’t just shake, it vaporized, forming a shallow crater that spewed molten rock and searing steam.

The S-Grade Dark Cloud Leopard, caught completely unaware by the invisible, silent assault, didn’t even have time to register the attack.

One moment it was a terrifying apex predator, the next it was a projectile.

Its incredibly durable, shadow-infused body, designed to withstand enormous punishment, was utterly overwhelmed.

The [Solar Flare Fist Art], amplified by [Savage Might] and channeled through the A-Grade Kinetic Void Gauntlets, delivered a blow of such catastrophic force that the Leopard’s shadowy essence seemed to unravel.

It was hurled like a cannonball, a blur of unraveling shadow and green S-Grade light, smashing through layers of ancient trees before crashing into a distant cliff with a thunderous boom that resonated across the entire Yin region.

It twitched once, its once-bright green eyes fading to dull embers, then lay still, its reign of terror ended by a single, devastating, and completely unseen blow.

Daniel landed lightly in the newly formed crater, the heat from his fist still radiating outwards, making the air shimmer.

He felt the satisfying thrum of overwhelming power, but also a slight sense of... anticlimax.

"Huh," he muttered, flexing his gauntleted hand. "Maybe a little bit overkill. Should have gone for the leg first."

He had wanted a test, a proper back-and-forth. Instead, he’d delivered an atom bomb with his knuckles.

He remained cloaked in [Voidwalk], observing.

Lia and Ayra were staring at the distant, smoking impact site on the cliff, their faces a mixture of utter terror and profound disbelief.

They hadn’t seen him. They had no idea what had just happened, only that the S-Grade monster that had been moments from killing them had suddenly, and very explosively, ceased to exist.

"What... what in the blighted Void was that?" Ayra stammered, her berserker rage completely extinguished, replaced by a very primal fear.

She looked around wildly. "Did the forest just... eat it?"

Lia, her face pale, shook her head slowly, her calm grey eyes wide with an almost spiritual awe.

"I... I don’t know. The energy... it was like a star exploding. But there was no one... nothing..."

Daniel decided it was time to make an appearance.

He allowed his [Voidwalk] to fade, the heavy cloak of invisibility and silence lifting, revealing him standing calmly in the smoking crater, looking thoughtfully at his still-glowing fist.

Lia gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. "Daniel! You... were you here the whole time?"

Ayra just stared, her jaw slack. "Vance? Did you... did you just do... that?"

She gestured vaguely towards the distant, leopard-shaped dent in the cliff.

Daniel offered a casual shrug, trying to look nonchalant, though the ground around him was still literally smoking.

"Oh, that? Just trying out a new... close-combat technique. Seemed to work okay. You two alright?"

Lia rushed over, relief flooding her face. "Daniel! We thought... we thought we were finished! That beast... it was so strong!"

Ayra,still in shock was still processing.

She looked at Daniel, then at her own axe, then back at Daniel.

Her expression was one of dawning, horrified comprehension.

"You... you have an invisibility skill?" she finally managed, her voice a hoarse whisper.

"Like... like total, absolute, ’I can’t even smell your cheap boot polish’ invisibility?"

Daniel grinned. "Something like that. A-Grade [Voidwalk]. Comes in handy for... surprising introductions."

Ayra swallowed hard. The gap between them, which she had been so determined to close, had just widened like the great grand canyon, possibly a super-massive black hole.

She felt a sudden, overwhelming urge to go back to the cave and have a long, serious talk with those boulders she’d been "meditating" on.

Maybe they had some advice on how to compete with a teammate who could literally punch S-Grade monsters into different postal codes while being completely invisible.

This was going to require a whole new level of training. And possibly therapy.