SSS Talent: From Trash to Tyrant Chapter 795: First Step

The notification remained in front of Trafalgar for a moment, hanging there while the ache in his body reminded him exactly how much work that single line had cost.

[You have learned Godstep]

A grin pulled at the corner of his mouth despite the blood drying across it. Days of tearing muscles, losing his footing, slamming himself into the ground, and letting the pool put him back together had finally bought him what [Sword Insight] alone couldn't.

'Status.'

The familiar blue light unfolded before his eyes.

[Godstep]

[Type: Primordial Movement Skill]

[Description: Forces mana directly through the body to produce instantaneous explosive movement, bypassing normal acceleration.]

[Current Range: 5 metres]

That was enough.

Trafalgar dismissed the screen almost immediately. He didn't need a wall of numbers explaining something he'd spent the last several days learning through bruises and torn muscle. Five metres wasn't much on paper, but in a fight five metres could put a sword behind someone's guard before they understood he'd moved.

"Oh." Rhosyn's voice reached him from beside the pool. "Congratulations, Trafalgar. You finally did it."

He looked over.

There was a slight smile on her face, small enough that most people probably wouldn't have noticed it. Trafalgar did. She looked genuinely satisfied, and perhaps she had reason to be. This was the first technique he'd learned that belonged to the Primordial bloodline itself, rather than House Morgain, a stolen skill, or something he'd built from what this life had handed him.

"Thanks." Trafalgar rolled one shoulder, testing how his body had handled the successful burst. "Took long enough."

"Less than I expected."

Dravok spoke from beside her, arms still folded across his chest. His expression remained as severe as ever, the sort of face that could make praise sound like another test he expected you to pass.

Trafalgar glanced toward him. "Really?"

"Yes." Dravok studied him for a moment. "Although after watching the way you've trained these past few days, it would have been stranger if you hadn't learned it quickly. You understood the technique from the beginning. All you needed was to force your body to catch up."

Coming from Dravok, that was close enough to a compliment that Trafalgar was willing to take it.

He opened his mouth to answer.

"Focus."

Caelvyrn was already in front of him.

Trafalgar caught the movement from the corner of his eye, a fist driving straight toward his face with none of the patience the dragon had shown while waiting for him to learn.

His body reacted before the old habit could win.

Mana fired through him.

[Godstep].

The punch cut through empty air.

Trafalgar appeared five metres to Caelvyrn's right with Maledicta already in motion, boots landing cleanly beneath him as the black blade came around toward the dragon's ribs.

Scales flashed across Caelvyrn's side.

Clang!

Maledicta bounced away, but Trafalgar had already stepped back, putting distance between them before the dragon could answer.

Caelvyrn slowly turned his head.

Then he grinned.

"Oh, now you're showing off your new skill, huh?" His claws flexed at his sides. "You bastard. Come here."

Trafalgar laughed once under his breath. "You're the one who told me to focus."

"Don't get clever with me."

Caelvyrn rushed him.

Trafalgar waited longer this time, watching the dragon close until the distance between them became uncomfortable. He could have used Severance Step. A few days ago he would have, because that movement was familiar and safe.

He fed mana into Godstep instead.

Caelvyrn's claws swept for his chest.

Trafalgar vanished from their path and appeared behind him.

Five metres.

Clean again.

[Morgain's Requiem] began the instant his boots touched the ground, Maledicta carving through the first arc before Caelvyrn had fully turned. The second slash came low, the third reversed toward the spine, each one arriving from a position Trafalgar couldn't have reached so quickly before.

Scales answered every cut.

Metal shrieked across them again and again.

Caelvyrn gave ground by a single step, then twisted through the fourth strike and drove his palm into Trafalgar's shoulder.

Trafalgar fired Godstep.

Too late.

The heel of Caelvyrn's hand caught him before the movement completed, and the burst turned ugly under the impact. Trafalgar shot sideways instead of back, crossed the full five metres at a bad angle, and landed with his feet tangled beneath him.

He barely managed to stay upright.

Caelvyrn was already there.

A fist buried itself in Trafalgar's ribs.

The crack this time was louder.

Trafalgar flew, hit the ground, and slid several metres before Maledicta bit into the floor and gave him enough resistance to stop himself.

Pain dug into his side with every breath.

'Still can't use it whenever I want.'

That mattered.

Learning Godstep hadn't made the technique forgiving. He could execute it now, but executing it while Caelvyrn was hitting him, changing his balance, or forcing him into an angle he hadn't chosen was another problem entirely.

Trafalgar pushed himself up.

Caelvyrn didn't wait.

The dragon came in with another straight punch, and Trafalgar disappeared before it landed.

[Godstep].

This time he emerged to the left and immediately drove [Morgain's Linebreaker] forward. Maledicta crashed against scales covering Caelvyrn's chest, the force behind the technique finally pushing the dragon back two full steps.

Trafalgar saw it.

So did Caelvyrn.

"Better."

That was all the warning he got.

Caelvyrn disappeared from Trafalgar's sight.

A hand closed around the back of his neck.

'Shit.'

Trafalgar tried to fire Godstep again, but Caelvyrn's knee struck his lower back before the mana could settle properly. Pain flashed up his spine and broke his concentration apart.

The dragon threw him forward.

Trafalgar rolled with it, came up on one knee, and swung Maledicta behind him without looking. Caelvyrn caught the blade in one scaled hand.

His fingers closed around the Legendary edge and held.

Trafalgar stared at him.

Caelvyrn's grin returned. "You were getting a little too pleased with yourself."

He yanked.

Trafalgar was dragged forward with Maledicta before he could release the weapon, and Caelvyrn's other fist drove into his stomach hard enough to fold him in half.

Blood hit the black ground beneath them.

Trafalgar's grip loosened.

Caelvyrn caught him by the collar before he could fall.

"Godstep is good," the dragon said, almost conversationally. "Very good. But don't make the mistake of thinking a new toy suddenly closes the distance between us."

Trafalgar managed a bloody grin. "I moved you two steps."

Caelvyrn stared at him.

"You really shouldn't have said that."

"Probably not."

Caelvyrn turned toward the pool.

Trafalgar had enough time to understand what was coming.

"Wait—"

The dragon threw him.

Trafalgar crossed the distance through the air, hit the dark water hard enough to send a sheet of it over the edge, and sank beneath the surface with his ribs screaming and blood trailing away from him in thin red strands.

Dravok's voice reached him through the water before the darkness swallowed the rest.

"Good. Now that you've learned how to move, we can start teaching you how to fight."