Re-Awakened :I Ascend as an SSS-Ranked Dragon Summoner

This thing. This monster. Memory fragments exploded through his mind – documents he wasn't supposed to read, conversations he'd overheard late at night. His parents' faces, illuminated by emergency lights as they boarded the Ark. "It's for the best," they'd said. "The war needs us more than you do."

The war. This war. These fucking Harbingers.

"We have to kill it," Noah said, his voice so raw that both Lila and Kelvin stared at him. In the background, Lucas Grey crashed through another tree, blood trailing through the air.

"That's statistically impossible," Kelvin started rambling, his technopathic interfaces flickering green around his head as he continued trying to reach the base. "Your ability isn't even combat-oriented, Noah. The data shows—"

"Fuck the data!" Noah's shout made them both jump. "Fuck logic! Look around you! Logic didn't help them!" He gestured at the clearing, now littered with the broken bodies of humanity's best and brightest. "Logic didn't save Earth!"

The Harbinger's tail whipped through the air, and another student's scream cut off with a wet gurgle.

"Both of you, listen," Noah's voice dropped, carrying an authority neither had heard before. "Get everyone who's still breathing. Everyone who can move. Get them out. Get them far from here."

"And what about you?" Lila asked, her eyes wide. There was something in Noah's voice, something that made her feel goosebumps with nervous energy.

Noah smiled, but it wasn't his usual expression. This smile had teeth. Had rage. "Me?" He watched the Harbinger methodically dismantling their elite students. "I'm going to give this thing what it deserves."

"That's suicide," Kelvin protested, but his voice wavered. Something in Noah's tone, in the way his usually casual demeanor had hardened into killer intent, made the words die in his throat.

"Maybe," Noah said, still wearing that terrible smile. "But someone has to make it bleed."

Lila opened her mouth to argue, then stopped. The air around Noah had changed, carrying a weight she'd never felt before. "Don't you dare die," she managed instead.

They left him there, Lila moving to gather the wounded with her telekinesis while Kelvin's fingers danced through holographic interfaces, desperately seeking any communication channel still active.

Micah remained on his knees, lost in his own terror. Noah spared him one last glance. "Some leader you turned out to be."

[WARNING: MULTIPLE CRITICAL SYSTEMS ENGAGING]

[RECOMMENDED ACTION: ABORT]

"Shut up," Noah muttered to his interface. His hand extended, calling forth the eclipse blade. The weapon materialized from shadow, drinking in the ambient light. "You don't get to calculate this one."

The Harbinger had just backhanded Lucas through another tree when Noah started running. Each step felt like lead, every instinct screaming at him to flee. But he kept moving, kept accelerating, his voice barely a whisper:

"Activate void blink."

"Initiate null strike."

The world held its breath.

And Noah Eclipse charged toward humanity's nightmare, ready to show it exactly what fear could become.

-----

Commander Hayes watched another mech unit explode, the pilot's scream cutting off as curved talons ripped through reinforced titanium like wet cardboard. The two-horned Harbinger emerged from the wreckage, its bio-augmented armor reflecting the base's emergency lights.

"Aegis formation!" Lieutenant Chen barked through local comms. "Don't let that thing near the reactor core!"

Five elite soldiers moved as one, their beast-core enhanced abilities lighting up the smoke-filled corridor. Chen's own crystalline projections formed a lattice of deadly edges while her squad unleashed their arsenal. Plasma bolts. Concentrated sonic bursts. Hardened light constructs. Each attack precisely aimed at the Harbinger's vital points.@@novelbin@@

It didn't even slow down. Each soldier was at least a second generation and ranked at least level 8. On an average, they'd fare better against a one horned Harbinger. But the power gap between each Harbinger rank was so vast the difference was like tossing a grain in a football field.

"Containment breach in Sector Seven!" someone shouted over the local channel. "They're targeting the mech bays! They're learning—" Static swallowed the rest.

Hayes' flame chain ignited, the Level 5 beast weapon burning with otherworldly fire. The three-horned monster before him tracked the movement, its own bio-mechanical augments humming with lethal purpose.

"You're not getting this planet," Hayes growled, the chain writhing like a living thing. "Cannadah stays human!"

The three-horn's response was a sound between a laugh and industrial machinery breaking. "Your species," it said, voice like grinding metal, "still thinks in terms of ownership."

Their clash shook the entire base. Hayes' flame chain wrapped around the creature's arm, burning hot enough to melt standard tank armor. The Harbinger's bio-tech plating barely scorched.

Down the corridor, Chen's squad wasn't faring any better. The two-horn moved like liquid death, each strike ending another soldier. Parker, their demolitions expert, managed to land a direct hit with a beast-core explosive. The blast took out an entire section of wall.

The Harbinger emerged unscathed for the most part. Wounds healing at rapid rates.

"Our weapons aren't doing shit!" Sergeant Rivera screamed, his gravity manipulation barely slowing the monster's advance. "Where's our heavy support?"

"Communications are still dark," Chen replied, her crystal barriers shattering one after another. "Long-range sensors, orbital defenses, everything's down. This was planned. They've been here for—"

The two-horn's tail speared through Rivera's chest, pinning him to the wall. Three more soldiers died in the next second, their enhanced armor offering no more protection than paper.

In the command center, Technical Officer Wong's fingers flew across holographic interfaces. "The breach in our scanning network," she reported, voice shaking. "Three days ago. We thought it was electromagnetic fluctuations, but they... they were already here. Already inside our—"

A massive explosion rocked the base. Through the armored windows, Hayes caught glimpses of more Harbingers emerging from concealed positions. Their bio-tech camouflage melted away, revealing forms engineered for war.

"Multiple contacts!" someone shouted. "They're in the civilian sectors! They're—"

The three-horn's strike nearly took Hayes' head off. Only decades of combat experience saved him, letting him roll with the impact. His flame chain lashed out in response, wreathing the corridor in supernatural fire.

"Lieutenant!" he roared between exchanges. "Status on evacuation protocols!"

Chen's response was drowned out by the sound of another mech being torn apart. The two-horn had figured out their weak points, was systematically disabling their heaviest weapons.

"Sir!" Wong's voice crackled through his local comm. "The planetary defense grid... they didn't just disable it. They reprogrammed it. If we try to launch any ships—"

"They die in orbit," Hayes finished, understanding dawning with horrible clarity. "We're trapped planetside."

The three-horn's next attack cratered the reinforced floor. Hayes countered with his chain, the Level 5 weapon screaming as it collided with bio-mechanical armor. For a moment, they were locked in stalemate.

"Your resistance," the Harbinger stated "is an interesting datum. But ultimately irrelevant."

Around them, the base continued to fall. Humanity's most advanced weapons, their strongest soldiers, their hardened defenses – all crumbling before an enemy that had been playing a longer game than they'd imagined.

And somewhere above, hidden in Cannadah's orbit, more Harbinger ships waited. Watching. Patient.

Cannadah's invasion had already begun.