Re-Awakened :I Ascend as an SSS-Ranked Dragon Summoner-Chapter 580: Black smith Noah

"They’re just circling," someone said from further down the wall. A faction member from one of the other groups, his voice carrying confusion rather than alarm. "Why aren’t they attacking?"

Noah watched the horde move through the snow-covered wilderness beyond the perimeter. Hundreds of them, maybe close to a thousand. Category four beasts based on size alone—massive creatures that stood easily twelve feet tall at the shoulder, their bodies covered in what looked like natural armor plating that gleamed gold in the fading afternoon light.

They looked like polar bears if polar bears had been designed by someone who thought standard apex predators weren’t threatening enough. White fur covered most of their bodies, but that gold armor grew in thick plates across their backs, shoulders, and heads. Long claws extended from paws the size of dinner tables. Spikes jutted from their spines. Multiple horns curved from their skulls in patterns that suggested both offense and defense.

And they were just walking in circles around the city’s outer perimeter. Not charging. Not testing the defenses. Just maintaining a steady orbit maybe two hundred meters from the walls.

"Arctic beasts," Seraleth said, her luminous eyes tracking the movement. "The snow must have attracted them. Temperature drop from the weather manipulation earlier probably triggered migration instincts."

"That makes sense," Lila added, though her voice carried doubt. "Except category four beasts don’t usually travel in herds this size. They’re apex predators. Very territorial. Having this many in one place should be causing fights."

"Unless the environmental conditions override normal behavior," someone else suggested. A commander from another faction, her tactical vest showing insignias Noah didn’t recognize. "Extreme weather can force predators to tolerate each other temporarily."

Noah wasn’t convinced, but he couldn’t articulate why. The beasts were just walking. Circling. Not threatening anyone directly. But something about the perfect synchronization of their movement, the way they maintained exact spacing between each other, felt wrong.

"Do we engage?" Lila asked, her hands already glowing slightly as her telekinesis activated in preparation.

"They’re category four," the other faction commander said. "Even if they’re not actively hostile, having this many this close to the city is a threat. If they decide to charge, we won’t have time to mobilize properly."

Noah looked at the other factions represented on the wall. Maybe two hundred combatants total, all of them equipped for defensive operations. Not enough to handle a thousand category fours if they all attacked simultaneously, but probably sufficient if they could thin the numbers before things got serious.

"We engage," Noah decided. "Controlled strikes. Test their response. If they scatter, we let them go. If they attack, we hold the line and call for reinforcements."

The other commanders nodded agreement. Orders were relayed down the line. Weapons came up, abilities activated, everyone preparing for what should have been a straightforward elimination operation.

The first volley of fire went out. Blaster shots, elemental attacks, projectile weapons. Maybe fifty simultaneous strikes hitting the circling horde from multiple angles.

The beasts reacted immediately. But not by scattering or fleeing like normal animals would. They turned toward the walls in perfect unison and charged.

"Here we go," Lila muttered.

The ground shook under the weight of a thousand massive creatures accelerating to full sprint. Snow exploded upward in their wake, creating a white cloud that made visibility terrible. But Noah could see enough. Could see the gold armor gleaming, the horns lowered for impact, the claws tearing through frozen earth.

"Fire at will!" someone shouted, and the defensive line opened up properly.

Noah activated Void Blink, reality folding as he displaced himself off the wall and into the path of the charging horde. He materialized thirty feet from the nearest beast, Excaliburn already drawn, void energy screaming along its edge.

The creature saw him, adjusted its charge, came at him with single-minded focus. Noah waited until it was ten feet away, then activated Phase Step. His body became incorporeal. The beast’s claws passed through him like smoke. He phased back into reality behind it, his blade coming around in a horizontal slash that took the creature’s head clean off.

[Category 4 Beast Eliminated]

[+156 XP]

[Beast Core Acquired]

The core vanished from the beast’s dissolving corpse, pulled into Noah’s void storage automatically. He didn’t pause to check it. The next beast was already on him.

This one tried to gore him with its horns. Noah blinked sideways, appeared next to its flank, and drove Excaliburn through the gap between armor plates. Void energy spread from the wound, eating through the creature from the inside. It collapsed mid-stride.

[Category 4 Beast Eliminated]

[+156 XP]

[Beast Core Acquired]

Seraleth had jumped off the wall as well, landing among the charging beasts with enough force to crater the ground. Her fist came around in a punch that caught the nearest creature’s jaw. The impact sounded like thunder, but more importantly, it hit multiple times. Her reverb ability made a single punch feel like five, the force compounding with each repetition. The beast’s head snapped backward with enough violence to break its neck.

She moved to the next one before the first had finished falling, her enhanced speed and strength making her a blur of motion. Every punch killed. Every movement was economical, direct, not wasting energy on unnecessary flourishes.

Lila stayed on the wall but her contribution was immediately obvious. Objects began lifting from the defensive installations—empty ammunition crates, pieces of broken equipment, chunks of rubble from damaged sections. They floated around her in orbital patterns before launching outward like missiles.

A metal beam weighing maybe two hundred pounds hit a charging beast square in the chest, punched through its armor, and emerged from its back. The creature dropped instantly. Another piece of debris took a beast’s legs out from under it, sending it tumbling. Lila’s telekinesis caught it mid-roll and slammed it into three of its companions, the impact killing all four.

But she was doing more than just throwing objects. Noah saw her hand extend toward a cluster of five beasts, her fingers splaying. The air around them seemed to thicken, and suddenly they were moving in slow motion. Not stopped completely, but slowed to maybe a quarter of normal speed while everything around them continued at full pace.

Other defenders took advantage immediately. A storm of fire concentrated on the slowed beasts, overwhelming them before Lila’s time manipulation released and they could react properly.

The battle became a meat grinder. Category four beasts were dangerous individually, but they weren’t coordinated beyond their initial charge. They attacked whoever was closest, used their natural weapons without strategy, relied on raw power rather than tactics.

Noah killed his tenth beast, then his twentieth. Excaliburn carved through armor plating like it was paper, void energy ensuring that wounds didn’t heal, that death was immediate and permanent. His Void Blink let him move through the battlefield faster than the beasts could track, appearing behind them, beside them, above them.

He activated Void Barrage, purple projectiles erupting from his hands in rapid succession. Each one carved holes through whatever it touched, the erasure energy making armor irrelevant. Five beasts dropped in as many seconds, cores vanishing into his storage before their bodies finished dissolving.

[Category 4 Beast Eliminated]

[+156 XP]

[Beast Core Acquired]

The notifications kept coming. Noah stopped paying attention to individual kills, just let the system track everything while he focused on the fight. Blink, strike, kill, move. Over and over. The rhythm of combat becoming almost meditative despite the violence.

Seraleth was covered in blood that wasn’t hers, her fists moving in patterns too fast to follow clearly. She’d grab a beast’s horn, use it as leverage to snap the creature’s neck, then throw the corpse into another beast hard enough to break bones. Her reverb punches created shockwaves that knocked nearby beasts off balance, making them easier targets for other defenders.

Lila had expanded her time manipulation zone, creating an area maybe fifty feet across where everything moved at half speed. The range made the effect lesser than normal. A shorter range meant she’d neutralize most mobility. But because she was stretching the range, she couldn’t halt everything in her zone.

Beasts entering it found themselves vulnerable, unable to dodge or defend while normal-speed attacks tore them apart. Her telekinesis maintained constant pressure, throwing debris, crushing limbs, even pulling beasts off their feet and suspending them in the air long enough for someone else to finish them.

The horde’s numbers were dropping fast. What had been a thousand became eight hundred, then six hundred. The snow around the perimeter turned red, then black as blood mixed with special abilities being used.

Beast corpses piled up, creating obstacles that forced the survivors to navigate around or over the dead.

Noah killed his fiftieth beast, then kept going. The XP notifications had become background noise, just constant confirmation that the system was tracking everything. His void energy reserves were holding steady around seventy percent despite the sustained combat. The beast cores kept accumulating in his storage, more wealth than most people saw in years just appearing automatically.

An hour into the fight, the horde broke. The remaining beasts turned and fled, abandoning their strange circling behavior entirely in favor of pure survival instinct. They scattered into the wilderness, leaving behind maybe three hundred dead and a battlefield that looked like something from a war documentary.

Noah stood among the carnage, breathing hard but not exhausted. Around him, other defenders were checking wounds, confirming kills, beginning the process of accounting for casualties and collecting usable materials.

"Everyone alright?" Seraleth called out, her voice carrying across the defensive line.

Affirmative responses came back. Some injuries, nothing critical. The defensive position had worked perfectly, giving them height advantage and forcing the beasts to fight uphill through prepared killzones.

"That was weird," Lila said, dropping down from the wall to land beside Noah. "Arctic beasts don’t usually behave like that. The circling, the synchronized charge, all of it felt off."

"But we stopped them," Noah replied. "That’s what matters right now. We can figure out why they were acting strange later."

The flight back to Eclipse headquarters was quieter than the flight out. Everyone was tired, processing the adrenaline crash that came after sustained combat. Noah sat in the transport with Seraleth and Lila, watching the city pass beneath them again as they approached their landing pad.

The debriefing was brief. Sophie confirmed zero Eclipse casualties, multiple injured but nothing requiring more than basic healing. The other factions reported similar results. Overall, it was being classified as a successful defensive operation despite the unusual circumstances.

"Get some rest," Sophie told everyone. "We’ll compile full reports tomorrow. For now, just recover."

Noah headed to his quarters, wanting privacy to check something that had been building in the back of his mind throughout the entire fight. The constant stream of notifications, the accumulating cores, the XP gains.

He closed the door, sat on his bed, and thought the command that brought up his system interface.

’Profile,’

[Name: Noah Eclipse]

[Level: 61]

[Class: Void Reaper]

[Health Points: 3,000/3,520]

[Void Energy: 24,000/24,000]

[Experience: 2,847/35,000]

[Talents:]

Void Manipulation [SSS+ RANK]

Perfect Echo [Sealed]

Enhanced Regeneration [S RANK]

[Enhanced Skills:]

Void Blink (Level 13)

Enhanced Null Strike (Level 10)

Void Absorption (Level 9)

Entropy Touch (Level 8)

Void Barrage (Level 6)

Null Strike ’n Chi Fusion (Level 5)

Storm Call (Level 6)

Phase Step (Level 3)

Reaper’s Harvest (Level 1)

[Attributes:]

Strength: 330

Agility: 363

Vitality: 340

Intelligence: 349

Wisdom: 334

Noah stared at those numbers for several seconds. They represented his baseline before today’s rewards, before the horde elimination, before everything that had accumulated over the past month of sustained operations.

’Show me all rewards,’ Noah thought. ’Everything I’ve been putting off.’

The system responded immediately.

[Quest Completed: Protect the Head]

[Reward: +70 Stat Points - Available for Distribution]

[Quest Completed: Mothership Destroyer]

[Objective: Destroy a Harbinger Mothership]

[Reward: Unique Ore - Blue Shell Crystal]

[Status: Available for Forging]

[Recent Combat Summary]

[Category 4 Beasts Eliminated: 73]

[Total XP Gained: +11,388]

[Beast Cores Acquired: 73 Category 4 Cores]

[Current Experience: 14,235/35,000]

Noah felt his eyebrows rise despite himself. Seventy-three kills. He’d known it was a lot, had felt the rhythm of constant combat, but seeing the actual number made it real. That was seventy-three category four beasts, each one a genuine threat to trained soldiers, eliminated in about an hour of sustained fighting.

The XP gain was substantial but not enough to level him up. The gap between 61 and 62 required 35,000 total experience, and he was still less than halfway there despite the massive influx.

’Seventy stat points from the quest,’ Noah thought, studying the numbers. ’Plus whatever I decide to do with these cores. That’s real growth if I distribute it properly.’

He started with vitality. Enemies like Kruel existed, things that could hurt him despite his armor and regeneration. Having more health meant surviving hits that should kill him, buying time for his healing to work.

’Add thirty points to vitality.’

[Vitality: 340 → 370]

[Health Points: 3,520 → 3,720]

The change was immediate. Noah felt it in his chest, a sensation like his entire body had become slightly more solid, more resilient. Not dramatic, but noticeable.

Strength came next. Raw power mattered in close combat, especially against opponents who could match or exceed his speed.

’Twenty points to strength.’

[Strength: 330 → 350] 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

The remaining points he split between his other attributes, trying to maintain some balance.

’Ten to agility, five to intelligence, five to wisdom.’

[Agility: 363 → 373]

[Intelligence: 349 → 354]

[Wisdom: 334 → 339]

Noah reviewed his updated stats, confirming the changes had registered properly. The improvements weren’t dramatic individually, but collectively they represented genuine growth. He was faster, stronger, more durable than he’d been an hour ago.

Now came the interesting part.

[Blue Shell Crystal: Unique Ore]

[Origin: Harbinger Mothership Core Material]

[Properties: Unknown - Requires Forging to Determine]

[Void Forge Available: Yes/No]

[Warning: Forging outcomes are not guaranteed. Ores may produce unusable results. Combining with compatible materials increases success probability.]

’So it’s a gamble,’ Noah thought, reading the warning again. ’Could end up with something amazing or complete waste. And the system’s suggesting I combine it with something rather than forging it alone.’

That made sense. He had resources now. Hundreds of beast cores accumulated over months of operations, plus whatever other materials he’d collected and forgotten about.

’Open void storage,’ Noah commanded.

The display shifted, showing him an inventory screen that made his chest feel tight despite knowing roughly what should be there.

Excaliburn sat at the top of the list, his void-forged blade that had carried him through countless fights. Knight’s Grace armor below that, each piece listed separately—breastplate, gauntlets, greaves, shoulder guards. The Void Striders occupied their own slot.

But below the equipment, the cores were listed in organized categories:

[Category 2 Beast Cores: 47]

[Category 3 Beast Cores: 156]

[Category 4 Beast Cores: 284]

[Category 5 Beast Cores: 3]

Noah stared at those numbers, particularly the category fours. Two hundred eighty-four cores, each one representing a beast he’d killed, wealth that could fund a small faction for months. But he mostly fed the dragons with it.

The three category fives sat in their own section, glowing faintly even in the storage display. Those were rare enough that most people never saw one in their entire lives.

’Compatible materials,’ Noah thought, studying the list. ’The system said combining increases success probability. So the question is, what works with this Blue Shell Crystal? What combination produces something actually useful instead of just burning resources?’

He settled back against his headboard, eyes still on the storage display, mind already working through possibilities.