The Seven Demon's Tamer

"Oh, wow." Valachi's smile spread across his face with a gleam of madness clearly in his single white eye. "You are clearly worthwhile."

The compliment hung in the air for barely a heartbeat before...

*Swoosh.*

It happened again, just like that quick, sudden flash that had caught them off guard before. Valachi disappeared completely from Master Sung's field of view, vanishing as if he had never existed in that spot at all.

Even the air itself didn't flutter, almost as if it didn't detect Valachi in motion.

Master Sung knew better—the terror of losing track of such a dangerous opponent—and he wasn't about to sink himself into the luxury of deep thinking. Panic and hesitation was the last thing anyone should ever feel while facing opponents like these.

Without a moment's delay, his voice rang out:

*"Absolute Harness!"*

Just as soon as he chanted, his summoned familiar that was still outside—the Thunder Whisker Koi—retreated into his body quickly with such swiftness that not even the faintest trace of mist was seen in the process. The absorption was instantaneous, complete.

But Master Sung wasn't finished. The moment his familiar merged back into his spiritual core, the actual techniques of absolute harness activated: the affinity of his familiar blended through his own core.

*"Affinity of the Thunder Whisker Koi: Heavenly Lightning!"*

What erupted from his body the moment the absolute harness was completed was controlled lightning, bursting forth with violent intensity.

*Lightning Resident*

He chanted the last and final technique. The lightning that was crackling only around his body extended intensively like a protective barrier that extended exactly five meters in every direction.

The electricity wasn't random or chaotic—it was perfectly controlled, forming a perfect dome of deadly energy that would electrocute anything foolish enough to approach.

"That was a smart move," came Valachi's voice, and Master Sung's head sharply turned toward the sound.

Valachi was standing behind him, but carefully positioned just outside the range of the crackling electrical field. His pale scales seemed to shimmer in the lightning's glow, making him appear even more apparent in the darkness of the night.

"Trying to stop me from getting too close, huh? Not bad."

But even as he spoke, Valachi was already preparing his next assault. His clawed hand drew back, fingers curling into a tight fist, and just like before, the very air around his knuckles began to move with purpose, converging.

It was being drawn inward, sucked toward his clenched hand along with some sort of energy that seemed to be extracted from the air as well.

The black energy converged, growing darker and more concentrated with each passing second and slowly forming a growing orb of pure black energy, carrying malevolent power.

"Trying to stop me from attacking is the main purpose I decided to tap into my familiar's affinity," Master Sung began. "It would be more appropriate if you said one of the reasons I used the absolute harness technique is to stop you from attacking me."

He stretched one of his legs backwards in a running stance, created from martial arts. "There is another reason."

*Dzzzzzzzzz!*

What happened next, as soon as Master Sung finished speaking, caught Valachi completely off guard despite his overpowering reflexes and enhanced perception.

Master Sung had closed the distance between them in what could only be described as a heartbeat.

"Adding lightning to amplify my already inhuman speed is just enough to help me match you in the aspect of quickness," Master Sung explained as he moved, his voice carrying clearly despite the chaos around them. "We are even now."

*Rumble!*

Thunder roared across the night sky with such intensity that it was followed by a flash of light, bright enough to momentarily illuminate everything further than their eyes could see.

For the first time since this nightmarish battle had begun, it was a strike that actually went through Valachi's hard scales.

His body was sent coursing through the air from the tremendous impact, his form spinning end over end as he struggled to regain balance. But Master Sung had no intention of giving him any opening to recover, no chance for a counterattack.

With movements that seemed to blur the line between human capability and lightning energy, Master Sung leaped skyward and transformed himself into living lightning.

His body became a bolt of crackling electricity that zapped through the air, following Valachi's flight path with just the perfect speed and...

*Bang!*

He struck the black-marked familiar again before Valachi could fully regain awareness of his surroundings, driving him downward toward the already-devastated ground below.

The impact of Valachi's body hitting the surface created a crater deep enough that the creature momentarily disappeared from view entirely. Dust and splinters of rock flew in all directions, creating a temporary cloud that obscured everything with dust into the air.

The moment Valachi's body hit the ground, Master Sung was already descending like a meteor, his fists crackling with electrical energy regardless of the smoke obscuring his vision.

Sending punch after punch after punch that roared like thunder upon every collision.

*Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!*

Each blow was delivered with the full force of Master Sung's enhanced strength combined with the raw power of his familiar's lightning affinity.

Sparks flew with every impact, and the crater grew deeper and wider. All attacks were successful until the sixth punch.

The sixth punch never landed.

Instead, Master Sung found his fist caught firmly in Valachi's pale palm, the creature's fingers wrapped around his knuckles with so much power that Master Sung couldn't move his fist forward even an inch.

The black-marked beast was no longer lying helplessly in the crater—he was sitting up, very much alert, and apparently far less damaged than Master Sung had hoped, but more than he expected; there were bruises on Valachi's body.

Recognizing the immediate danger of being trapped in close quarters with such a powerful opponent, Master Sung's body reacted on its own. He leaped backward with explosive force, creating what he hoped would be a reasonable distance between himself and the creature.

But while he was still airborne, still sailing through the air in what should have been a safe retreat, he kept his gaze locked on the crater where Valachi had been lying. What he saw—or rather, what he didn't see—made his blood run cold.

There was no trace of the creature there. The crater was empty.

What the hell!

"Lightning Resident!" he chanted while still coursing through the air, quickly activating the lightning technique.

Lightning began to crackle around his body again and expanded, just as it had done earlier, but this time not just in a five-meter radius.

Since he had distanced himself from the others who were battling the remaining black-marked beasts, he could afford to let the lightning flow freely without hurting his allies.

The defensive barrier expanded outward, creating a much larger sphere of crackling energy that would protect him from attacks coming from any direction.

In a sudden motion as fast as always, Valachi flashed toward him from behind, moving through the defensive lightning barrier as if it were nothing more than a mild inconvenience.

The black-marked beast's body cut through the electrical barrier with just a little effort and next to no damage.

Unfortunately, it did affect his speed for just a split second—more than enough time for Master Sung, who was practically moving at the speed of light.

The moment Valachi had completely phased through the lightning barrier, his extraordinary speed had been regained, but it was already too late.

Rather than simply trying to flee, Master Sung did something that was worth the one-in-a-million opening. He performed what could only be described as a perfect one-hundred-and-eighty-degree rotation around Valachi's position.

In the blink of an eye, Master Sung had repositioned himself directly behind the black-marked beast.

"Fenrir Deity Transformation!"

The words rang out as Master Sung activated yet another technique, the Sen technique of merging with familiars.

The transformation was instantaneous. His human fingers elongated and sharpened, becoming razor-sharp claws that gleamed maliciously.

They were the claws of another of his familiars, his wolf-like familiar that is called the Fenrir deity.

*Slash!*

The sound of claws meeting flesh was followed immediately by something that hadn't been heard since this battle began.

The sound of tearing.

Master Sung had managed to accomplish what had seemed impossible just at the start of the battle.

By transforming into his wolf-like familiar and channeling the Thunder Whisker Koi's lightning affinity directly into the tips of his claws, he had created a combination attack that had actually penetrated Valachi's seemingly impenetrable skin.

The strike left a visible mark—the first real damage anyone had managed to inflict upon any of the black-marked creatures from the Astral Shadow plane.

"After all this time," Master Sung panted, looking up at Valachi with killer intent, "I finally found an effective way to fight against you."

Valachi, who still had his back turned against Master Sung, slowly turned around with a new version of pleasure in his eyes.

The scratch that Master Sung had managed to inflict was barely visible, a thin red line that had drawn out perhaps a single drop of blood. It was almost insulting in its insignificance compared to the effort that had been required to achieve it.

"It was just a scratch that barely drew out a drop of blood," Valachi spoke with a voice that carried coldness and crazed excitement at the same time.

His devilish smirk extended until it literally touched his ears on both sides, creating an expression so disturbing that it would have been enough to give most people nightmares. The worst version of a smile he had shown so far.

"You had to use so many techniques to accomplish that, even though I still haven't used my affinity yet." The creature's head tilted slightly, its gaze unwavering from Master Sung. "Tell me now, does this call for rejoicing?"

Despite his exhaustion, Master Sung forced himself back to his feet, removing his knee from the ground with obvious effort—the usage of so many techniques was taking its toll. His legs shook slightly, but his voice remained firm and determined when he replied.

"You haven't been able to use your affinity because I've been stopping you every time you try," he stated with conviction, wiping sweat from his forehead. "And I will continue to stop you."

It was a brave declaration, spoken with so much confidence. But even as the words left his mouth, Master Sung couldn't shake the feeling that he might have just made a terrible mistake.

"I think you must be mistaken," Valachi said, and his body slowly began to levitate upward, rising into the air without any visible means of support.

His pure white eye, which had been unsettling enough before, now began to burn with actual black flames that flowed with menace in the darkness of the night.

"I haven't even begun to use my own internal energy yet, not my techniques, and you're acting like you've achieved some great victory," Valachi continued. "You must have forgotten your place just because I decided to have some fun with you."

Everything that had happened so far—the intense battle, the lightning techniques, the transformation abilities, the single scratch that Master Sung had managed to inflict—all of it had been nothing more than Valachi playing around.

The creature hadn't even been trying, and that seemed to be just about to end.

---