My SSS Beast Rank System

Beast Not On Chart

"What are you? What the hell are you?"

Chloé Beaumont was on her ass on the cold marble floor of The Cabildo Academy, scrambling backward on her elbows, her perfect uniform skirt ripped, her gold panther eyes blown wide with a terror I had never seen on her face before.

She was staring at my back.

No, not at my back. At what was coming OUT of my back.

The rusty dust of Mamie's necklace had vanished into my heart, and where it had been, white light was bleeding through my grey uniform like veins of lightning. My feet were not touching the floor anymore. I was floating, maybe two feet off the ground, my head thrown back, my mouth open in a silent scream that was not my scream at all.

And behind me, two massive claws made of black smoke and starlight and broken chains had punched out of my shadow and dug into the lockers on either side of the hallway. They were not solid. They moved like living smoke, but where the tips touched the iron lockers, the iron screamed and melted.

The whole hallway was dead silent. A moment ago fifty beast students had been laughing at me. Now every single one of them was on their knees, hands clawing at their own throats, their own beasts whimpering inside them, trying to hide.

Every single one except one.

Finn Lacroix stood in the middle of that silence, his chest heaving, his white wolf claws fully out, tearing his black sleeves. His eyes were not human anymore. They were pure, blazing wolf gold, locked on me, and he was not looking scared. He was looking hungry. Possessive. Like a wolf that had finally found something he had been hunting for his whole life.

"Marie-Jeanne," he growled, his voice deeper, rougher, like two voices at once. His and his wolf's.

Inside my skull, the cold ancient voice that called itself my system spoke again, and this time it sounded pleased. Satisfied.

DING! GOD CAGE DESTROYED! HOST HAS ACCEPTED QUEST MAKE THEM BOW!

QUEST COMPLETION: SEVENTY PERCENT! FIFTY BEASTS CURRENTLY BOWING! ONE A RANK PANTHER CURRENTLY TERRIFIED!

FIRST AWAKENING REWARD ISSUED! SKILL UNLOCKED: BEAST SCAN! SKILL UNLOCKED: SSS RANK SHADOW CLAW! FORM: TEN PERCENT!

Information exploded behind my eyes. It was not words. It was sight. Suddenly I could see them. Not the students. Their beasts.

Transparent shadows hovering behind every kneeling body. A boy who always tripped me had a hyena with its tail between its legs. A girl who wrote weak on my locker had a small green snake coiled so tight it was shaking. And Chloé...

Behind Chloé, her beautiful, proud black panther, the A rank beast everyone in Cabildo worshipped, was flat on its belly, ears pinned back, whining, its golden eyes fixed on my smoke claws, and it was not trying to fight. It was begging not to be eaten.

A strange, dark laugh bubbled up my throat that was not mine.

"What... what is happening to me?" I whispered, but my voice came out layered, echoing, like two voices speaking at once too.

Chloé flinched like I had slapped her. "Get away from me! Get that freak thing away from me, you beastless trash!"

Trash. She said trash again.

The smoke claws behind me reacted to my anger before I could think. One of them moved. It did not swipe at her. It just reached, slow, deliberate, and the tip of one black claw brushed the air an inch from Chloé's perfect cheek.

She screamed. Not a tough girl scream. A real, raw, childlike scream. Because where that claw passed, the air froze. A thin line of frost formed on her skin.

And her panther vanished. It just... popped out of existence behind her, retreating so deep inside her that she lost all her gold glow. Her eyes turned dull brown. For the first time since I met her three months ago, she looked completely human. And completely weak.

"My... my beast... where is my beast?" She clutched her chest, hyperventilating. "What did you do to my beast, you freak! Give it back!"

I dropped to the floor, my knees hitting marble hard. The floating stopped. The claws behind me flickered, like a bad signal, and melted back into my shadow. The white light in my chest faded to a dull, pulsing glow under my skin, right over my heart.

I was gasping, drenched in sweat, my grey uniform sticking to my back. My hands were shaking so hard I could not see them.

WARNING! HOST BODY TOO WEAK FOR SSS RANK FORM! AWAKENING PAUSED AT TEN PERCENT TO PREVENT DEATH!

YOU HAVE DEVOURED A TRACE OF A RANK PANTHER FEAR! AGILITY INCREASED BY FIVE PERCENT! STRENGTH INCREASED BY FIVE PERCENT!

I did not feel stronger. I felt like I had been hit by a truck. My heart was hammering against my ribs like it wanted out.

Footsteps. Heavy, fast.

Finn was suddenly in front of me, kneeling, his hands hovering inches from my shoulders like he was afraid touching me would burn him. Or like he was afraid he would not be able to stop touching me if he started.

His wolf eyes searched my face, my glowing chest, my trembling hands.

"Marie-Jeanne, look at me. Breathe. Just breathe, okay?" His voice was still rough, but he was trying to be soft. He looked over his shoulder at the kneeling crowd and snarled, a sound so loud the lockers rattled. "Get out! Everybody get out of this hallway right now!"

Nobody needed to be told twice. Fifty students scrambled up, tripping over each other, running, not looking back. Their beasts still whimpering.

Only Chloé stayed on the floor, sobbing now, broken, her hands still clutching her chest where her panther used to be.

Finn ignored her completely. His eyes were only on me.

"What was that?" he whispered, so low only I could hear. His hand finally touched my arm, and a shock like static electricity shot through both of us. He hissed, but did not let go. His claws retracted instantly, like his wolf did not want to hurt me. "That thing inside you... it is not on any chart. My wolf... my wolf has never bowed to anything. But it just..."

He did not finish. Because a new sound cut through the hallway.

Slow. Heavy. Clapping.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

We both turned.

At the far end of the hallway, standing in the shadows under the portrait of the founders, was Principal Leon.

He was a tall man, always in a sharp black suit, always smiling like he knew secrets. His beast was S Rank Dragon. Everyone feared him. But right now he was not smiling. His eyes were completely dragon, vertical slits of amber fire, and he was staring at my chest, at the pulsing light over my heart, with an expression I could not read. Shock. Hunger. Reverence.

"Well, well, well," he said, his voice echoing unnaturally, layered with a dragon growl underneath. "So the little charity human experiment was not so human after all. Elise told me you might be special, Marie-Jeanne. But she did not tell me you were this."

My blood went cold. He knew Mamie. He knew my grandmother's name.

Finn instantly stood, moving in front of me, his white wolf aura flaring, protective. "Principal Leon. She needs the infirmary. Now."

Principal Leon's dragon eyes flicked to Finn, then back to me, and he smiled. It was not a kind smile.

"The infirmary? No, Mister Lacroix. What she needs is a proper rank test. Because that glow... that roar... that was not D Rank. That was not even A Rank. That thing that just made fifty beasts bow and made little Chloé's panther hide..."

He took one step forward, and the marble under his shoe cracked.

"...that thing is not supposed to exist anymore."

Chloé made a choked sound on the floor. "Sir... she attacked me... she stole my beast... she is a monster..."

Principal Leon did not even look at her. He kept his burning eyes on me, on the light over my heart that was now beating in rhythm with my own terrified heart.

"Tomorrow morning. Eight o clock. Rank Hall. Both of you. Do not be late, Miss Dubois. And do not take off that light. Let everyone see what you really are."

He turned and walked away, his suit rippling like scales in the dim light, his clapping echoing.

As soon as he vanished around the corner, the light over my heart pulsed once, violently, and a final voice message, louder and more urgent than any before, screamed inside my skull.

DING! EXTREME DANGER DETECTED! S RANK DRAGON HAS SCANNED HOST! HOST'S SSS RANK CORE EXPOSED AT TEN PERCENT!

WARNING! COUNCIL BEACON ACTIVATED! THREE UNKNOWN SSS SIGNATURES IN NEW ORLEANS HAVE FELT YOUR AWAKENING!

QUEST UPDATED: SURVIVE THE RANK TEST!

Finn grabbed my shaking shoulders, his face pale now, his wolf eyes wide with real fear for the first time.

"Marie-Jeanne... what did you just wake up?"