SSS-Ranked Awakening: I Can Only Summon Mythical Beasts

Vwooooommmm...

With a seismic pulse, the flat grounds of the coliseum twisted open like a blooming metal flower.

What emerged was a series of floating stone platforms—dozens of them—scattered unevenly across a vast chasm that seemed to open up beneath the arena itself.

At the center of the chasm was a singular pedestal glowing with pulsing, radiant light.

"Woooahhh..."

Gasps echoed around the audience.

It looked like a broken landscape suspended in midair, connected only by gaps and mana pathways that shimmered faintly. Runes danced along the edges.

A pit of energy boiled below the platforms—a fall here wouldn't mean death, but it would be a harsh ejection from the trial and a severe loss of points.

"The third and final trial," Master Ilwin called, his voice like thunder. "The Gauntlet of Momentum."

He turned to the students. "Each of you will begin on a starting platform. The goal is simple—reach the pedestal at the center and claim one of the four tokens placed there."

Four tokens. Four academies.

"The first to reach the pedestal will gain the most points. The second slightly less, and so on. But beware," Ilwin's tone dropped, "you may attempt to hinder others. You may use whatever means you possess—within the arena's bounds—to sabotage, delay, or challenge your opponents. However..."

He paused, his gaze sharp.

"Lethal force will lead to disqualification."

A hush fell over the coliseum.

"Begin."

Suddenly, the platforms shimmered to life. Students found themselves teleported instantly to separate edges of the floating field.

Each was placed at a randomly assigned location, all at different distances from the glowing pedestal.

The crowd leaned forward as the trial began.

Renar, ElderGlow's strongest Year Two, blinked as he materialized onto a circular slate no larger than five feet across.

A swirling vortex of energy raged below, and to his left, a second platform hovered a few feet away, rocking lightly in midair.

He inhaled deeply. No wind. No sensory feedback. Just magic and motion.

He began to move.

Rather than jump, he knelt and poured mana into his soles. A soft bronze shimmer spread beneath his feet as he launched, rocketing toward the next platform.

Bang!

The moment he landed, it shifted beneath him, attempting to throw him off. He dropped low, keeping his center of gravity controlled.

Elsewhere across the maze, the other representatives began to move as well.

One particular Crowgarth student—thickly built and armed with a spiked chain—chose the aggressive route.

He charged forward, crushing smaller platforms beneath his boots and throwing out his chain to hook onto another student nearby.

"Raaaarrr!!" With a shout, he yanked a Wyrmere boy mid-jump and sent him plummeting into the swirling pit below.

Cheers and cries erupted from the stands.

From the upper viewing deck, Damon leaned forward. "He's too wild. That won't last."

"He won't make it to the center," Celeste said calmly. "Someone will use his own weight against him."

Sure enough, as the Crowgarth brawler hurled his chain again toward a Thornevale girl with green sigil tattoos glowing down her arms, she blinked out of existence the moment the chain neared her—teleportation glyph.

She reappeared behind him, whispered something, and touched his back with two glowing fingers. His eyes widened. Then his knees gave out as if gravity had doubled on his body.

He dropped flat onto the platform, too heavy to rise.

She moved on.

Meanwhile, Renar was moving faster than any of them. Not with grace, but with brutal calculation.

He used no tricks, no manipulation. Just flawless mana movement. He timed each jump precisely, reinforced his landings with hardened air bursts beneath his feet, and adjusted for every tilt and spin of the floating stones.

But others noticed.

As he neared the halfway point, the Thornevale girl appeared ahead of him. She raised both hands and formed a wall of kinetic energy shaped like jagged spears.

Renar didn't flinch.

He gathered mana into his palm and fired a shockwave—not at her, but at the platform beneath him. It broke, and the force launched him diagonally upward, bypassing her entirely.

The crowd exploded into cheers.

The Wyrmere girl—still ranked second—moved in delicate arcs, skipping across the stones with wind-manipulated footing. But two Crowgarth twins attempted to sandwich her between collapsing platforms, launching spell bursts to destabilize the field.

She twirled midair, summoned a gale that lifted her up a full platform height, and landed just out of their range. With a flick of her fingers, she activated glyphs that shattered one of their footholds.

"Ahh!" One twin tumbled with a scream.

ElderGlow's second student, a boy named Harven, moved well but not flawlessly. He kept a steady pace, but his casting was slower.

When a Thornevale student created a barrage of floating blades and sent them flying, Harven struggled to parry, losing balance. A blade grazed his shoulder, disrupting his concentration.

He fell—but caught the edge of the platform with one hand.

Straining, he swung himself up, blood trailing from his arm. But the delay had cost him.

Renar was already at the final approach.

Four platforms remained.

But three others had reached the outer perimeter too—Wyrmere's wind-dancer, Thornevale's glyph-caster, and a Crowgarth rogue who'd remained hidden most of the trial.

All four raced toward the center.

Now, the pedestal glowed brighter, reacting to their nearness. The central platform began to shift, rotating slowly like a dial. It forced timing. A misstep now would be a catastrophic drop.

The Wyrmere girl acted first. She used the rotating pedestal's motion to glide herself onto the edge and made for one of the glowing tokens.

But as her fingers touched the orb, a blast of force sent her tumbling back—repelled.

Renar landed next.

He blinked, read the pedestal's markings—and realized what had happened. "Oh? Is that so?"

Only one token may be taken per student. But only once the pedestal recognizes their mana signature.

He stepped forward, placed a palm on the glowing stone beneath the tokens—and a hum resonated through the platform.

A rune flared open.

The closest token dimmed and snapped free. He caught it.

The crowd erupted.

Wyrmere landed again, carefully this time, and copied Renar's action. Her token released a second later.

Thornevale followed, then Crowgarth.

One by one, the final four took their tokens and stood, panting, bruised, and barely able to stand. They'd reached the summit.

Around them, the field began to shimmer and dissolve. All remaining students were teleported out in waves—some still fighting mid-jump, others reaching for platforms they'd never make.

The rankings updated.

Cheers rolled across the stands as glowing letters appeared mid-air:

Year Two Final Trial Rankings:

1st - Thornevale

2nd - ElderGlow

3rd - Wyrmere

4th - Crowgarth

A collective cheer roared from the ElderGlow section.

They hadn't placed first—but they were far from falling behind.

And somewhere, as Damon watched Renar being lifted back into the staging grounds by instructors, he felt something shift deep in his core.

They're ready, he thought.

But would we be? "Well, I'll find out pretty soon end."