The Seven Demon's Tamer

"I think this is enough violent noise," Ryder spoke inwardly to Luxy. "How do you suggest I manage this new situation?"

"Try to hold your ground," Luxy responded. "You cannot escape from this current situation—you have no other option but to fight."

"Are you sure about that, Luxy?" Ryder spoke inwardly again. "I have your trait of leaping through great distance; I might stand a chance."

Luxy remained silent for a short while before responding. "How many times have you stolen a peek at the sky since the beginning of this fight?"

That was right. Unfortunately, Ryder had been too focused on Captain Kyujiro and his fight to keep in mind the impending danger descending from the sky. The countless pods, falling like burning meteorites.

The heat around increased drastically as Ryder raised his head to stare above.

Pods collided with the ground seconds later—not just a single pod like Captain Kyujiro's had been, but everything that had been left in the sky. The sound was unlike anything Ryder had ever heard: a thundering explosion, shaking the ground like an earthquake and destroying everything.

The impacts weren't limited to the area around Ryder and Captain Kyujiro. The pods fell across the entire Red Eastern Guild base, their arrival haphazard with devastating impacts.

The number of pods wasn't a small force by any means, and Ryder could only watch in horror, unable to do nothing.

All it took was a short moment of consecutive impacts to devastate the entire guild. The Fan district, with its carefully crafted ancient artifacts and peaceful residential areas, was reduced to rubble in seconds.

The Luo district, where so many guild members lived, became a landscape of craters and debris.

The Tian district, housing the hardest structures, had fallen. Even the Sen district, with magical barriers, natural dreamlike landscape and floating buildings, wasn't spared from devastation.

***

"No!" Master Sung gasped, his eyes wide open, trying desperately not to accept what had just transpired before his very eyes. The sight was so devastating, so catastrophic, that his mind seemed to go blank.

He couldn't even bring himself to move and dodge the incoming projectile heading straight towards him—if Akira hadn't been swift enough to pull him away with lightning-fast reflexes, he would have definitely been struck down by the burning debris.

"Why!!" Master Sung forced his vocal cords to whisper, his usually composed demeanor completely shattered.

"Why is this happening?" Dwang Sung muttered, emotions welling up inside him. The pain in his voice was raw, enough to make Mara's throat go tight from just listening.

The Red Eastern Guild—his life's work, his pride, his very own guild—was being reduced to rubble in mere minutes.

Everything he had constructed, every building he had personally overseen, every training ground where he had watched countless summoners grow and develop their abilities, was being haphazardly destroyed by falling pods that continued to rain down from the sky like meteors of destruction.

The residential quarters where guild members slept peacefully were crushed, along with the guild members inside.

"There's no way the sleeping guild members would have been unharmed by this strike," Master Sung whispered, his voice barely audible over the continuous explosions echoing around them. "Some might have already been crushed to death by the fast-descending pods."

The thought of his people—his guild members who had strived to reach the top because of him, who had gone to sleep believing they were safe under his leadership—being killed in their beds was almost too much for him to bear.

After all many of them had gone through to get accepted by the Red Eastern Guild, they were ending up like this.

"Yuki!" Dwang Sung gritted his teeth, anger boiling inside of him. His brother's name came out like a curse, dripping with years of accumulated hatred.

"I am not going to let this slide," Master Sung declared, his eyes burning with viciousness.

"Yuki, I am going to kill you," he continued, each word pronounced slowly with clarity. The look in Master Sung's eyes as he spoke contained such pure fury that everyone around him took an unconscious step backwards.

This wasn't the composed, patient leader of the Red Eastern Guild they knew. This was a man who had been pushed beyond his tolerance, craving for vengeance against the person who had destroyed everything he held dear.

*Bwoom*

A gust of wind suddenly blew violently, and with that explosive burst of air pressure, Dwang Sung completely disappeared from their field of view.

The force of his movement created a small crater the size of his feet from where he had been standing, wind ripples blowing out and whipping everyone's hair and clothes.

Everyone stared into the distance, stunned into silence.

"All I can tell is the direction he went, nothing else," Leo muttered, unable to believe his eyes. His silver gaze had barely been able to track the movement for even a fraction of a second.

"Let's go," Leo declared, his voice cutting through their stunned silence. "We might arrive too late if we waste any time."

"Right!" they all echoed, their voices ringing as they sprang into action.

"Call on the three exclusives, Mikasa," Zhou instructed, his face dead serious for once. Gone was his usual manic grin and playful demeanor. "Send out your familiar to them, we need you to fight by our side."

"Things could get ugly any moment from now."

The three exclusives—Yuki, Mika, and Koji—weren't the crew Master Sung would normally carry into battle, and Zhou knew this. Under normal circumstances, Master Sung preferred to fight alongside his most trusted allies, and Zhou knew this, but he made the decision for a reason.

These weren't normal circumstances.

***

Meanwhile, just a short while before the collision...

Back where the first explosion had begun, Captain Kyujiro had just summoned out his two familiars.

The Eclipse Tiger restlessly circled around his summoner—its predatory instincts were fully engaged, and it was clearly eager to begin its hunt.

The Blue Lily-Octopus floated silently beside its master, its countless tentacles looming with barely contained electrical energy crackling on them.

"Interesting," Captain Kyujiro murmured to himself, his scarred face showing genuine disappointment. "I had hoped to capture the black-marked summoner without interference, but apparently, things are not going to go my way."

"Report," Captain Kyujiro commanded, making it seem like he was talking to himself since no one had emerged from the descended pods.

"The pods have successfully delivered all two hundred members of the assault force," the report came directly to his ears through telepathy.

"Casualties?" Captain Kyujiro asked, though he clearly wasn't particularly concerned about the answer.

"Minimal on our side," the voice replied. "The surprise attack was highly effective. However, we've lost contact with three members that had descended around your perimeter."

"They were all exterminated in a bee line towards your location from our readings."

Ryder glanced at the summoned familiars, not making any move since he knew for sure they wouldn't let him do anything. The restlessness of the Eclipse Tiger alone was evidence that it was only suppressing itself and only waiting for Master Sung's permission to ravage his opponent.

Captain Kyujiro's gaze went cold as he concluded before ending the communication. "Let them come."

"It's a shame I'll have to bring the black-marked summoner to the guild master alive," Kyujiro said, his bloodlust reducing but anger still constant. "You really crossed the line."

"I'll make sure I beat you half to death."