SSS Ranked Beast Tamer: My EP increases with girls-Chapter 180: CH : Her family (Edited)

From the shadows stepped a tall figure, his face hidden behind a smooth, expressionless black mask. No hesitation. No pause. Just purpose.

Ella’s heart skipped. Her instincts screamed at her to run, but her body was frozen. It was as sure as day that this wasn’t Eric. Whoever this person is, he has no good intentions.

Then, without a single word, the masked man lifted both arms. A sharp gust of air whooshed through the room, and in the blink of an eye, spirals of concentrated wind began to swirl viciously around his forearms like coiled serpents. The pressure in the room shifted. Her hair whipped across Ella’s face, and her eyes widened in terror.

"Help—!" she gasped.

But it was too late.

With a flick of his hand, the man unleashed a slicing gust of wind, its edges sharp like invisible blades. It tore through the air and slammed into her side, sending her crashing into a crumbling wall. A cry tore from her throat as pain flared across her arm and ribs. Blood welled instantly along the fresh cuts that now marred her skin.

She hit the ground hard, her breaths ragged and shallow.

The masked man stood over her, examining her like a disappointed hunter. "Hmph," he sneered, his voice muffled but menacing. "This is it? You’re the lightning girl?" He let out a scoff that stung almost as much as the wind.

Ella struggled to push herself up, blood trickling down her cheek, her hands trembling.

"What lightning girl?" she asked, wincing. "You’ve got the wrong person. I’m not whoever you’re talking about!"

But he wasn’t listening. His ego had already inflated. "Pathetic," he growled. "They said she was a threat... a demon cloaked in thunder. But you... you’re just a weak little thing playing hero." He leaned down and grabbed her by the wrist, yanking her roughly to her feet.

Ella cried out as pain shot through her injured side, but the man didn’t care. He dragged her toward the front of the house, her feet scraping against the debris-strewn floor.

———

Moreover, at the other house where Sun had went to, the lightning girl who had came to rescue at the last moment, could be seen standing over the half-charred body of the masked man. Her fists were clenched, lips trembling as she fought back the inner turmoil within her.

"I asked you a question," she said, her voice low, cracking with emotion. "What did you do to my mother? To my siblings?"

The man just stared at her, lips curled in a bloodstained grin.

"You killed them," she whispered. "Didn’t you?" 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

The man chuckled, the sound coarse and chilling, like dry leaves scraping against stone. Then the chuckle rose into something worse; a high-pitched, deranged cackle that echoed through the crumbling house like a banshee’s wail.

He didn’t say a word.

He just laughed.

And then, without warning, his hand moved, revealing the faint red glow of a suicide glyph burning into his palm.

"No!" the girl screamed, lunging forward, but it was too late.

The glyph detonated in a flash of crimson fire, engulfing the man’s body in a firestorm. The smell of scorched flesh filled the air as flames devoured him completely, leaving behind only a blackened crater and ash swirling in the air like snow.

She stood frozen for a moment, her breath caught, her chest rising and falling with rage and helplessness. There was nothing left of him. No answers. No justice. Just ashes.

But she couldn’t linger.

Without a word, she turned and bolted toward the exit, her boots slamming against the broken floorboards.

Sun had been watching from a corner, eyes wide with shock. As the girl rushed out, Sun followed, her hand over her heart. She had to find Ella and make sure she was safe.

They both burst into the open yard just as the sky began to turn a shade darker, clouds swelling above as if reflecting the chaos below.

Then they saw it.

A man, rugged and masked, dragging Ella across the street by her arms. Her hands were bound tightly behind her back. Her face was bruised, a trickle of blood running from her temple. Cuts lined her arms, and her steps faltered with every tug.

"Ella..." Sun whispered, horrified.

Dave stepped out of Eric’s aunt’s house at the exact same moment, his body covered in smoldering soot and firelight still lingering in his eyes. He froze as his gaze landed on Ella.

His pupils shrank. The air around him grew hot.

He clenched his fists.

But before he could take a single step—

Zzzzap!

A streak of blue lightning burst forward like a thunderbolt.

The young girl had already launched herself at the man with impossible speed, a blur of white hair and electric fury. Her fist, wrapped in crackling lightning, slammed into the man’s face with the force of a bolt from the heavens.

CRASH!

The man’s body flew through the air like a ragdoll, smashing into the side of the burned-down building where Dave had just fought moments ago, right through the still-smoldering hole in the wall.

The girl didn’t even stop to breathe. She dashed forward, her feet leaving sparks on the cracked ground as she pursued him.

Sun rushed to Ella’s side, and Dave as well had sprinted towards her, as he quickly begin to untie the bindings from her hands.

"Ella! Are you okay?" Sun asked as she gazed at her weary eyes.

She collapsed into her arms, blood trickling down her chin.

"It’s okay Ella, I’ve got you. You’re safe now," Dave whispered, holding her hands with reassurance before gazing towards the direction where the masked man had been punched into.

’I wonder how she’s going to take it once she sees them.’ Dave said within himself.

Moreover, the girl burst through the broken wall, lightning still crackling faintly along her arms as she stormed into the scorched ruins. Her breathing was heavy, each step loud against the charred wood and cracked stone. She was ready to finish the man who’d dared lay hands on her cousin.

But as she stepped inside the collapsed part of the house, expecting a wounded enemy...

Her eyes landed on something else entirely.

She froze.

The faint embers still danced across the wreckage, casting flickering shadows. But in the heart of it all, blackened, brittle, and unmoving bodies could be seen.

Six of them.

Three larger. Three smaller.

They were twisted, as if they had tried to shield one another from the flames. The large ones were especially shielding the smaller ones. The mother’s arms still wrapped around the smallest form.

The girl’s knees buckled.

She fell to the ground, her lightning sputtering out as a choked gasp escaped her lips.

"No..."

She crawled forward slowly, hands trembling as she reached out, but stopped inches before touching the remains, as if afraid they’d disintegrate under her touch.

"M-Mom...?" her voice broke, barely a whisper.

The reality hit her like a tidal wave.

Her mother... her dad... her little brother... her baby sister... her uncle and nephew...

Gone.

Burned alive.

A trembling sob escaped her lips, then another, until she was clutching her chest, rocking forward as silent tears streamed down her soot-stained cheeks. Her throat ached to scream, but no sound came out. Only raw, shaking breaths that sounded louder than thunder in the silence.

Behind her, the man she had punched lay slumped, broken and battered. He had watched her reaction with a strange smile on his lips, and even in his injured state, he has a sick grin that never left his face.

She turned, her face pale, her eyes glowing, not with lightning now, but with something darker. Her grief was a storm that had lost all reason.

"What did you do..." she whispered. "Why...?"

The man coughed, his lip bloodied. He tried to crawl backward, but she was already looming above him.

"Where is he?" she demanded. Her voice was low, almost a growl. "Where did you take Eric? Where are the rest of your people! It’s me they want, they should come and get me!!"

The man smirked through his pain, though his eyes betrayed his fear. "You should have done that instead of hiding, now your family is dead. And very soon, your dearest cousin will end up dead too—"

Before he could finish, lightning surged from the girl’s palm and crackled just inches from his face.

"Tell me now! Where’s Eric!"

His breath was caught. His defiance cracked.

"He... he was taken to the faction..." he choked out. "The Tai Faction."

The girl’s eyes narrowed. "Where is it? Tell me exactly where!"

The man’s body tensed.

"You think I’d betray my orders that easily?" he hissed. "You’re too late anyway. They’ll kill him. Just like they killed the others."

He began to mutter something under his breath. A soft, unnatural wind began to circle his form. It was thin at first, but soon, it rapidly grew into a whirlwind that whipped dust and ash around the room.

"No—!" the girl lunged forward.

But he was faster.

With one final breath, he clenched his fists and let out a scream. The wind exploded from his body, searing white-hot as friction turned to heat. The very air ignited, swirling like a furnace as the man’s body combusted, not with fire, but with wind so intense that it razed him alive.

His screams were brief before it was followed by silence.

The girl stumbled back, she stared, trembling, unable to believe what just happened. The masked man was gone. The location of the Tai faction and Eric lost with him.

She stood there for a long moment, staring at the charred bodies of her family, the flames casting long shadows behind her.

Then, wordlessly, she turned around and began walking out.

Each step was slower than the last.

As she emerged into the open once more, Sun turned from where she was cradling Ella and called out, "Are you okay, girl?"

But the girl didn’t answer.

She just kept walking forward, her fists clenched, her eyes hollow and unreadable.

Dave stood nearby, watching her approach, sensing the shift in the air—the grief, the rage, the storm brewing beneath her skin.

"She found them..." Dave whispered to himself. "She found what is remain of her family..."

The girl finally stopped a few feet in front of Dave. Her voice, when she finally spoke, was cold and flat.

"I’m going to burn that faction to the ground."