The Seven Demon's Tamer

Akira murmured to herself, helping Mikasa to her feet while keeping her eyes fixed on Draki. "You move too fast for even a Sen to track."

Mikasa dusted the remaining shards of crystals off her body since they were useless at this moment.

"It's me and you against him now," Akira declared, her voice carrying more confidence than she actually felt. "Let's go."

*Vwoom.*

The duo charged at Draki at the same time, their movements almost synchronized if not for the fact that Mikasa was faster.

Mikasa took the lead, her crystal manipulation abilities better suited for frontline combat, while Akira prepared to provide support the moment it was needed.

*Crystal Palace Eruption!*

Mikasa chanted out, activating one of her most advanced and energy-intensive techniques.

The response of her affinity was immediate. From the destroyed ground beneath their feet, massive crystal spikes began erupting upward like sharp pointed spears.

Each spike was perfectly formed, as wide as a pillar and dozens of feet tall, sharp enough to pierce through metal and moving fast enough to catch anything caught in their path before they could react.

However, Draki's response was to display the same impossible speed that had caught Mikasa off guard earlier. He leaped left, then right, then left again, his massive frame moving with fluidity.

Each movement was perfectly timed to avoid the emerging crystal spikes by mere inches, as if he could predict exactly where each one would appear.

By the time the last crystal spike had finished growing, Draki was standing in the only clear space left in the entire area—a small circle that Mikasa had purposely left open.

He should have been trapped, surrounded on all sides by crystal walls too high to jump over and too thick to break through.

Unfortunately for Mikasa and Akira, the fact that Draki had ended up exactly where Mikasa had intended him to be wasn't a sign that her plan was working.

"Interesting technique," Draki commented, examining the crystal formations around him with casualness. "Quite complex. I assume there's a second phase to this attack?"

It was evidence that he had seen through her strategy from the beginning and had chosen to play along, for no reason.

No. Mikasa bit her lips upon realization that their strategy had already been discovered. However, Akira still proceeded with her part, having no other option.

*Swap!*

Akira chanted in a low, focused tone.

In the blink of an eye, the affinity took effect. Draki, who had been standing in the center of the crystal eruption, was suddenly positioned right beside Mikasa.

And he seemed to be caught off guard by this, seeing himself standing in the exact spot where Akira had been positioned just a moment before.

Akira had swapped positions with Draki, putting herself safely in the circle void of crystal formation while placing him directly next to Mikasa, who was ready with her follow-up attack.

"*Crystal Chain!*"

Mikasa chanted quickly, not wasting the opportunity that Akira had created for her.

The ground beneath Draki's feet responded instantly to her command. Thick crystal chains, each robust as a pillar and harder than diamond, erupted from the earth and began wrapping around the black-marked beast's massive form.

While the chains wrapped around Draki, Mikasa quickly created distance between them, using the crystal spikes from her previous attack as cover while she prepared her next technique.

The moment she found proper footing and had a clear line of sight to her target, she launched into her follow-up attack.

*Crystal Rain!*

Chanted with force and emphasis placed on her voice.

Just as the name implied, countless crystals began materializing from thin air high above the battlefield.

Each crystal was perfectly formed, razor-sharp, and all of them were of the exact same shape and size. They hung suspended in the air for a moment like glittering stars, as beautiful as it was deadly.

Then they finally began to descend with great force, mostly focused towards Draki.

'Damn you, Akira,' Mikasa nearly exclaimed out loud. 'You should have at least given me a warning before teleporting that thing right next to me. I nearly had a heart attack when he suddenly appeared there.'

The crystal rain lasted for what felt like an eternity but was probably just one minute. Each falling crystal struck with the force of a bullet, creating a sound like continuous machine-gun fire.

The air filled with sparkling dust as crystals shattered against Draki's scales and against each other.

When the barrage finally ended and the dust began to settle, both of them held their breath as they peered through the settling cloud of crystal debris to see the results of their strategic plan.

Draki could be seen amid the pile of shattered crystals, his massive form still wrapped in the crystal chains that Mikasa had conjured. He clearly hadn't attempted to dodge the attack and had been caught up in the full force of the crystal assault.

But as the last of the dust settled and their vision cleared completely, their hearts sank to their stomachs.

There wasn't a scratch visible on his body. Not a single mark, cut, or bruise.

His dark scales hadn't even been affected in the slightest. The crystal rain that had fallen with enough force to crater the ground around him had left him looking as perfectly fine as if he had just stepped out of a peaceful shower rather than a rain of hard crystal.

The crystal chains that Mikasa had used to bind him were still wrapped around his entire body in such a manner that should have made any movement impossible.

However, Draki's response to being bound was not to struggle or attempt to break free through force.

Instead, he simply opened his mouth, and something began to build up within—a deep, powerful black aura, distinctive from the darkness of the night, and incredibly eerie.

"Oh no..." Akira and Mikasa whispered simultaneously, recognizing the buildup of power for what it was.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!*

Like flames from the deepest pit of hell, the gathered energy erupted from Draki's mouth in a concentrated beam of pure destruction.

The attack wasn't fire in the actual sense—it was something far more terrifying, a manifestation of raw energy that seemed to burn away even the air.

The beam tore through the air toward Mikasa's position with speed that made their earlier movements seem sluggish by comparison.

The crystal formations that had seemed so solid and permanent moments before simply ceased to exist as the dark energy touched them, not melting or breaking but simply being erased from existence as if they had never been there at all.

The ground along the beam's path didn't just explode—it formed a hollow ridge in a perfectly straight line across the ground where it coursed through, heading straight to Mikasa who was paralyzed in fear at her spot, watching the attack come at her.

Ashes flew upward and were carried by the wind as soon as the attack reached and engulfed its target and died down. All that remained of a few crystal formations that had taken considerable energy and skill to create.

The ground by now had been cratered by the incredible power of Draki's retaliation, adding yet another scar to the already devastated landscape.

"That was a close one, don't you think?" Akira commented with a forced smile that didn't reach her eyes as she stared at Mikasa, who was sitting by her side on the bare ground, looking dazed and shaken.

The reason Mikasa was sitting safely on solid ground rather than being reduced to nothing by Draki's devastating attack was, once again, Akira's assistance with her swapping techniques.

In the split second before the dark beam would have connected with its target, Akira had performed another swap, replacing Mikasa with a large chunk of rubble that had been lying nearby.

"You clearly wouldn't have survived that," Akira continued, extending her hand to help Mikasa up.

Upon getting up from the ground and dusting herself off, Mikasa responded, "I know. I owe you a big one for that."

"I like the sound of that, but that is a discussion for later," Akira replied, though her tone was giving hints that she didn't expect there to be a later for either of them. "Right now, we need to figure out how to deal with this thing before it decides to stop playing with us and take the fight seriously."

Draki's head turned towards the duo, and for the first time since the battle had begun, he spoke. "So you are still alive."

"So you are still alive," Draki's massive head turned toward the duo, observing.

Neither Akira nor Mikasa responded. Instead,

*Inhales.*

She drew a deep breath into her lungs, the sound so audible and pronounced that it almost felt like it was amplified by something supernatural.

"You are all clearly outmatched, but somehow, you are able to put up a good fight," Draki continued, beginning to walk toward them with the calm pace of someone who had all the time in the world.

As he moved, the crystal chains that Mikasa had bound him with shattered like glass, falling away from his body in glittering fragments that sparkled briefly before hitting the ground and dissipating.

"I can unmistakably hear the clashes between all of my colleagues and you humans," Draki observed, tilting his massive head slightly. "It seems like you are all putting up a good fight against an impossible situation."

The sounds he was referring to were indeed audible—the thunder of Master Sung's lightning techniques, the roars and crashes from Zhou's and Ryomen's battle against the double-headed dragon.

Draki was already so fast that he could be compared to Valachi in terms of raw speed—he could close distances that seemed impossible in a heartbeat, could strike before they could even register that he had moved.

Having him standing just a few meters away, well within his striking range, was, in fact, mental torture.

"So right now, I think I will stop toying around and take this battle seriously," Draki announced, his voice starting calm but rising in intensity as he reached his final words.

The change in his tone was a clear signal that he was about to make a rapid motion.

"*Swap!*"

Akira chanted without hesitation.

She didn't even wait for Draki to finish his sentence the moment she noticed the shift in his composure and body language.

She activated her familiar affinity with urgency, and in a flash, both herself and Mikasa were teleported in opposite directions simultaneously, putting maximum distance between themselves and Draki's position.

*Swoosh.*

Draki's attack came exactly where they were standing before, his massive clawed hand slicing through the air only to meet nothing.

The attack was aimed particularly at where Akira had been standing just a fraction of a second earlier—Draki had had her as a target ever since he realized how annoying her technique actually was.

"*Swap!*" Akira activated her technique again, this time swapping positions with a piece of rubble to avoid his second attack.

"*Swap!*" She used it again, placing herself behind Draki while moving Mikasa to a safer position.

"*Swap!*" And again, this time swapping Draki himself with a large boulder to confuse him, which affected his attack pattern.

"*Swap!*" She wasn't sparing a single second, activating her ability again and again and again.

Akira was swapping herself, Mikasa, and even Draki each time, visualizing themselves like a chess game in her head, where the pieces were constantly changing positions on their own and she was making the corrections.

She actually couldn't track everything that was happening—the battle had become too fast and too complex for conscious thinking.

She was operating purely on instinct and reflex at this moment, using her technique over and over again haphazardly, switching positions with inanimate objects whenever she could sense Draki's presence towards her or Mikasa.

The only constant in her moves was ensuring that after each swap, all the participants were far away from each other. Distance was their only defense against Draki's overwhelming physical superiority, and she was doing her best to maintain that distance.

On the contrary, what Draki was experiencing was something he found deeply confusing and frustrating. From his perspective, he couldn't understand how his attacks were missing over and over again.

Each time he struck out, he was absolutely certain that his target was within range. His incredible senses told him exactly where his opponents were positioned. For that, his attacks were perfectly aimed and timed.

But somehow, just an inch away from striking his target, he would suddenly find himself teleported to a completely different location, usually with his claws buried in solid rock instead of human flesh.

It was happening every single time, and from his point of view, it felt like Akira was toying with him when in actuality, she was desperately trying to survive.

She was making it seem like he would definitely connect with his attacks, building up his confidence and expectation, only to have either his target or himself suddenly disappear, leaving behind nothing but a single stone or chunk of rubble.

Yes, Akira was swapping their positions with those of stones and chunks of debris. The battle had greatly destroyed the ground and sent splinters of rock and building materials scattered everywhere, providing her with an almost unlimited supply of inanimate objects to use for swapping.

*Swap*

*Swap*

"*Affinity of the Demon Descendant: Cursed Speech,*" Draki whispered, finally deciding to activate his own technique after being made to look foolish for far too long.

The words carried an immense power that seemed to resonate in echo across the expanse. The air itself seemed to thicken and respond to his command, becoming heavy with supernatural authority.

"*Freeze.*"

That was the command he chanted out—a single word imbued with the power of the abnormal affinity of his familiar.

And truly, they all froze up, becoming as motionless as stone statues. Their bodies locked in place mid-motion, unable to move so much as a finger. They couldn't shift their weight, couldn't turn their heads, couldn't even blink their eyes.

The paralysis was complete, affecting not just their major movements, but every tiny ones as well that normally occurred without conscious thought, such as blinking.

And unfortunately for Akira, she couldn't use her familiar affinity without chanting out "swap." Her technique required verbal activation, and Draki's cursed speech had made such activation impossible.

They had been caught now. There was no escaping from this supernatural restraint, no technique Mikasa or Akira could use now.

Draki's eyes turned towards Akira, the one who had supposedly been toying with him, his eyes filled with killing intent.

"To think that a pest like you could push me so far that I had to use my affinity makes my blood boil," he growled, his voice carrying evidence of pure rage.

He pointed one of his razor-sharp claws directly at Akira's frozen form, the gesture carrying finality. "I'll start with you."