The Seven Demon's Tamer

Rushing through the maze alleyway path, Mo Fan's eyes were fixed forward. He didn't really know where he was going, but he could tell the path to follow—particularly due to the strong aura lingering in the air.

His footsteps weren't the only ones around; there was another.

Mo Fan's ears twitched as he registered a second set of footfalls behind him—heavy thuds that matched his own pace. Without breaking stride, he twisted his neck mid-run to glance behind him.

His familiar—ten feet of rippling muscle covered in red-blood skin, tusks protruding from its lower jaw, and eyes that glowed with red energy—was following Mo Fan loyally, moving with surprising fluidity for a creature of its size. The orc's massive frame struggled to fit in the narrow passage as its broad shoulders scraped the alley walls, creating sparks.

Mo Fan's face scrunched in disgust—not at his familiar, but due to the absence of his teammates. They truly decided against following him.

'So the FSG agents still refuse to follow me after all I said,' Mo Fan spat to the ground, a glob of saliva hitting the floor with a wet splat.

"I'm disgusted," he said aloud. "Bunch of cowards hiding behind their badges."

His familiar grunted in what seemed like agreement.

It was just a grunt, but Mo Fan found pride in it. 'Can a familiar be any more intelligent? It could understand my speech and respond to it.'

Who would believe a familiar can be capable of such? This must be the peak of intelligence for them—how lucky for my familiar to be at that level.

The maze of alley ended, and Mo Fan came to an abrupt stop, skidding forward a bit though. His familiar also halted perfectly, its movement stopping without elasticity.

Suddenly, he quickly came to a halt at the landscape that stretched in front of them—a clear field.

No, "clear field" isn't the right word—"ruined field" is. He halted at the edge of a wide ruined field, where the ground was covered in rubble.

'Who are those?' His eyes widened.

In the center of the ruined field, a menacing swirl of energy rotated slowly, about twenty feet above the ground. It glowed with a deep, unnatural purple. Purple lightning crackled around its edges—surprisingly, the bolts were mute, only flashing.

Right under it, there were two figures. One with blonde hair, and the other with white, accompanied by a relatively small rabbit-like creature.

From their pose, they were fighting, but then suddenly froze up, looking above at the purple swirling energy hole.

'I do not recognize these two.' Mo Fan observed as his orc took a step forward, standing by his side now as it could understand Mo Fan's impending intention.

"They're out in the middle of the night, fighting illegally, and performing some kind of ritual," Mo Fan assessed aloud, his voice cold and angry. "Creating disturbances that could attract attention from nearby residents. Unleashing energy signatures that even a child could trace."

His hands clenched into fists. "I'll take them down."

He turned to his familiar, looking up at the towering creature with a smile that made his previous expression seem softened—just slightly.

"Big guy," he called out, placing a hand on the orc's massive forearm, "take it easy, will ya? Bring them to me in one piece. I need information before I deliver them to FSG headquarters."

Mo Fan was about to give the signal to attack when the swirling energy above the combatants suddenly shifted in color.

Its color moved from deep purple to a vibrant orange that cast an abnormal glow on the ruined field.

'That's... not good,' he thought instinctively, halting his command to his familiar.

The two figures below reacted instantly. The blonde one—whom Mo Fan now recognized might be Leo—dove to the side and away from the portal with inhuman speed.

The white-haired one didn't move, but the rabbit-like creature did for him, darting forward in a blur of movement, grabbing him, and leaping away to safety, landing beside Leo.

BOOM!

The ground shook as the creature from the portal descended like a blur to the ground.

Dust billowed upward in a great cloud, temporarily blocking whatever had descended. But through the haze, Mo Fan could make out two glowing red, predatory eyes.

From the distance where he stood, he could feel it—it was an orange-marked, or rather, orange-ranked familiar—an untamed one at that.

The orange portal introduced orange-ranked familiars into planet Terra, and from the looks of it, it came directly from planet Terra—not from a summoner.

As the dust began to settle, the creature's form became clear. It had the powerful and muscular body of a lion, but where a lion's head should be, there was instead the curved beak and fierce eyes of an eagle.

Great wings, currently folded against its sides, completed the image of one of the most legendary creatures—a griffin.

An untamed familiar, Luxy, being a familiar himself, clarified. I can feel it.

Leo, who was standing right by his side, turned to stare at him. One moment, they were fighting—the next, they were talking.

"What else do I need to know?" Leo inquired, his gaze returning to the griffin, which was now stretching its wings, preparing to attack.

'It is an orange-mark familiar' Luxy concluded. 'That's all I can tell.'

Leo nodded slowly, then sighed. I was hoping you would tell me something I don't know.

Let's take it down quickly before it attracts unnecessary attention, Luxy spoke as he readied himself to hop towards the creature, when suddenly, Leo blocked his way with his hand.

"Don't move," Leo warned. "Something else is coming."

BOOM!

Another collision, like a meteor strike, hit the ground, breaking it.

This time, the dust cleared more quickly, dissipating to reveal what had descended—a creature that bore resemblance to a crab.

Though "crab" seemed woefully wrong to describe the monstrosity. It had four enormous pincers that looked capable of crushing rock with just a single swipe, and four red slanted eyes that glowed with malevolence.

Its shell appeared naturally cracked, yet somehow structurally sound, making it seem as if it had been broken and reassembled by some mad deity.

Most unsettling of all was its size—the creature stood nearly eight feet high, its body so large it could roughly be compared to the size of a small house.

Each step it took left a small depression in the ground.

The two creatures both stood, looking at the closest snacks around them.

"They are both orange-ranked familiars, but weaker. You should take care of it," both Leo and Luxy echoed to each other simultaneously, pointing at the crab beast.

"Oh, I guess we both realized." Leo quickly turned to the other side, trying to hide the smile on his face.

'These two are treating this like a game,' Mo Fan thought as he watched, keeping his distance. 'Time to show them the seriousness of the crime they are committing.'

With a single hand gesture from Mo Fan, his orc familiar let out a deafening roar that echoed through the ruined field, shaking it.

Rooooooooaaaaarrrrr!

The orc charged forward, moving with surprising speed for something of its massive size, covering the distance between the edge of the field and the combatants in mere seconds.

"Huh!" Luxy exclaimed, puzzled by the unexpected intrusion. "Where did this one come from?"

Luxy barely had time to finish his question before having to leap sideways to avoid an earth-shaking punch from the orc. The massive fist cratered the ground where Luxy had stood just a moment before.

In that instant, the other two beasts charged in. The griffin spread out its wings and launched into the air, while the crab-like beast rushed towards Leo. The orc that intruded raised its head to stare at Luxy, who was still suspended in the air from his previous leap.

The orc, having missed its initial attack on Luxy, turned his gaze to Luxy—still mid-air from his dodge.

The orc raised its hand upwards and clenched its fist, readying itself for another strike.

Rooooooooorrrrr!!!

The crab beast roared toward Leo, clacking its pincers menacingly, then launched at him at alarming speed.

"This will be an easy kill for me," Leo frowned. "I was hoping for more fun."

Splash!

A spray of black blood erupted into the air, followed by a heavy thud as the crab beast collapsed to the ground, its shell split neatly from one end to the other.

Leo stood beside the crab on the ground, his hand dripping with the same black fluid—though Mo Fan hadn't even seen him move.

'Impossible speed,' Mo Fan thought, his mind racing to process what he had just witnessed. 'No one moves that fast.'

"Brown-rank, orange-ranked," Lucian was saying, wiping his hand on a handkerchief he had produced from nowhere, "those are the two weakest in the hierarchy of beasts and are far from threatening for me."

"With the exception of Ryder, red-marked is the strongest beast the existing summoners of this generation have been able to contract," Leo continued, seemingly talking to himself. Then his head turned slightly to the side coldly, and his gaze locked directly onto Mo Fan, despite the considerable distance between them.

I've been able to stand my ground with even a black mark, so what the hell was that brat thinking—summoning an oversized, muscle-head creature to interrupt our fight? Leo wondered as his head turned slightly to the side, sparkling with a flash of expensive glitter like his pupils were pieces of diamond while he stared at Mo Fan.

Mo Fan, who had been keeping a calm and confident composure all this while, instinctively took a step backward as Leo's piercing gaze fell on him.

Despite how far he was—not even in the surroundings of the destroyed warehouse—he could see the beautiful blue-silver eyes glowing with malicious intent toward him, as if they were staring straight into his core.

Yet again, Mo Fan felt a chill of genuine fear run down his spine.

"Orc, retreat," Mo Fan commanded, his voice barely above a whisper. Lately, he had been seeing things that frightened him so frequently that he couldn't even curse. Instead, he bit his lips.

Meanwhile, Luxy finally landed on the ground once more and began to walk towards the orc coldly.

"Where did you come from?" Luxy questioned, his voice gentle but frightening at the same time. In a flash, razor-sharp claws extended from his fingertips, gleaming in the moonlight. "I can see you do not recognize your superior."

Rooooooooor!!!

It charged forward, but after just a single step, Mo Fan's command reached it. The massive creature simply... burst.

Like a balloon filled with too much air, it exploded into a cloud of red mist that hung in the air for a moment before flowing away toward Mo Fan, its summoner.

Luxy turned to the side, tracking its direction, and soon after, he could see its summoner by the side.

"Maybe one of those gangsters trying to act tough," Luxy remarked dismissively, turning away from Mo Fan, feeling like he was a mere waste of time. "I guess I'll spare him since he realized he was outmatched fast enough before I took any offensive move."

'Speaking of gangsters, there were quite a good number of them watching Ryder battle from the window earlier when the warehouse was still standing.' Luxy reasoned inwardly for a while but eventually came up with the possible outcome.

They must have run off.

"Hey!" Luxy called out, waving at Leo with his now-normal paw. "Are you done over there?"

"Hi! Are you blind?" Leo turned back to him and responded cheekily with a smile—despite his words sounding more like an insult—then signaled toward the crab beast on the ground, which was slowly dissolving into the air as particles.

"I guess the whole battle is over, isn't that ri—" Luxy suddenly froze as he felt something zoom past him, brushing his face with a cool breeze as it headed straight at Ryder, who was still struggling with moving his muscles due to the emotional bombardment he was receiving.

What zoomed past Luxy was the griffin that had launched into the air earlier.

Luxy had been so lenient with the battle, he had forgotten the griffin was still unattended to.

Splash!