The Seven Demon's Tamer

All the familiars around suddenly burst into red clouds of mist, flowing through the air back to their summoners.

The summoners stood motionless, their expressions were clear evidence of fear. They had made their choice to retreat their familiars—a choice that might cost them their careers, but they couldn't care less given that they preserved what mattered most: their familiars.

Lucian shot a dead glance at them from behind, his piercing gaze so intense that they could all feel it without turning around, but they couldn't care.

The weight of his disapproval was nothing compared to the reality of losing their familiars. They'd rather get kicked out from the FSG than lose their companions, their partners, their other halves.

Most would rather die than live without a familiar in this world. As far as one is a red-marked summoner, there are still countless opportunities awaiting them if they resign from the FSG this instant.

One of the agents caught Lucian's gaze and approached him, not minding his rank at the moment.

"Sir, with all due respect," she began, her voice steady but unable to completely mask the fear in her eyes, "I signed up to assist you with my familiar, not to sacrifice it for your cause."

Several others nodded in agreement.

Lucian's face scrunched up with fury, a vein pulsing at the side of his head. "You signed up to follow orders," he grunted, taking a threatening step forward. "And your orders were to—"

"It's for the best," Mia suddenly intruded, placing her hands on Lucian's shoulder, her touch firm but gentle, and surprisingly halting him. "Their familiars do not stand a chance."

Lucian hesitated, still in rage, but on second thought, they were right. Their familiars weren't doing much.

"Fine," he muttered, shrugging off Mia's arm. "But this isn't over. They'll answer for their insubordination later."

Turning towards the shadow dome, all the agents darted towards it.

Daoka, standing silently beside Mia, already understood his master's wish without the need for verbal communication, turned towards the retreating agents.

With a single flicker of his hand, so quick it was just like a blur, the shadow layer lightened, becoming translucent like a thin veil of dark smoke.

They all rushed out, phasing through the shadow dome like it never existed in the first place.

With that, Daoka flickered his hands again, thickening the shadow layer of the dome once more.

The barrier solidified, back to its original texture. The dome now contained only four beings—Mia, Lucian, Daoka, and their opponent, Luxy.

"Let mine handle it," Mia muttered as she turned to her familiar.

"Daoka, take the lead." Mia smiled as she stared at her familiar standing by her side.

Daoka turned to her with a reassuring nod before stepping forward.

Each footstep he took practically rippled and resonated with abnormally louder sound effects as he closed the distance between him and Luxy until they were just a few meters away from each other.

Mia stared, her face devoid of any expression or emotion. "Let's see how this plays out," she whispered, more to herself than to Lucian.

The slow footsteps of Daoka finally came to an end as Daoka finally closed the distance between him and Luxy to about three yards.

For some moments, Luxy and Daoka both stood, facing each other without making a single move. This didn't go unnoticed by the remaining spectators — Mia and Lucian.

"Why is your familiar hesitating?" Lucian asked angrily, but in a whisper.

Mia didn't take her eyes off the standoff. "Patience," she murmured. "In a battle between equals, the first to move is often the first to fall."

"This shadow dome cast over us was your doing, wasn't it?" Luxy finally spoke, breaking the silence between them.

He was honestly half-expecting an actual speech reply from the familiar whose name he learned was Daoka from the brief conversation between Lucian and Mia, but to no surprise, Daoka opened its mouth and replied with heavy grunts.

"Oh, you aren't capable of speech, what a shame." Luxy's ears twitched in disappointment, his crimson eyes narrowing slightly.

He had hoped to engage his opponent in conversation, to perhaps learn more about its origins, its powers, its weaknesses.

Information was power, after all, and in a battle between beings of their caliber, even the slightest advantage could tip the scales.

To be honest, right from the moment Daoka was summoned, he noticed its aura was unlike the others. Daoka's aura was as strong as a typical black-marked familiar, Daoka's aura was as strong as his and he would have loved to know how and why, but he unfortunately couldn't.

However, Luxy noticed from observation it wasn't a black-marked beast. He saw it materialized out of Mia's shadow as red mist, so HOW!

How could a red-marked familiar possess such power? It defied everything he knew about the hierarchy of familiars, about the appropriate stationing of familiars based on their strength.

It was a shame Luxy wouldn't get the chance to talk to him. Even with random rambling, he could have gained vital information. Again, what a shame.

Stretching one of his legs backwards, Luxy assumed a stance, narrowing his eyes into slits.

Luxy half expected an unfair fight with him getting the upper hand, where the fact that he was a black-marked familiar would help him guarantee superiority, but all he received was surprise and shock.

The confidence that had engraved in his mind moments before while exterminating all the red-marked familiars now seemed like foolish pride, a miscalculation that could cost him dearly.

He never expected to receive the first hit from a battle he was taking seriously against a red-mark beast that was supposed to be his inferior.

Wham!

The sound of impact reverberated through the dome like a thunderclap, a wind ripple that made Mia and Lucian instinctively take a step back.

Luxy didn't notice it at first until after a while— he was upside down in the air with his mouth wide opened and covered in his own blood.

The realization came slowly, dreamlike, as if his body and mind were momentarily disconnected from each other. Pain followed soon after.

Quickly completing the turn to a 360-degree spin motion, Luxy finally managed to halt his motion with a long skid, his back nearly touching the layer of the shadow barrier.

With his head up front, he saw it again, a blurry figure flashing towards him.

Swoosh!

Daoka's claws coursing through the air towards his face had forced him to duck into the ground, dodging Daoka's attempt to massacre his body.

The claws passed so close to Luxy's face that he could feel the displacement of air, as well as hear the whistling sound of the attack as it sliced through the air where his head had been just a fraction of a second before.

Blasting out of the ground, Luxy's eyes glared at Daoka with intensity as he roared.

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

From his mouth blasted a heavy release of black energy flame-like energy with red lightning crackling around it straight towards Daoka. The beam was massive, far larger than should have been possible from a creature of Luxy's size, yet, it poured out.

The energy attack illuminated the inside of the dome with an eerie, darker light swallowing everyone in the shadow.

The beam collided with Daoka at full force but as it did, his body melted into shadow and the next instant, materialized out from the dome wall right next to Luxy. It was as if Daoka had become one with the shadows that surrounded them, using the dome itself for instantaneous travel at will.

Luxy who was still in the air could only move his eyeballs in shock to stare at Daoka's claws arcing towards him immediately after the teleportation.

Time seemed to slow down, each second stretching into an eternity as Luxy realized that he couldn't dodge this attack, couldn't counter it, couldn't do anything but watch as the claws sliced through the air, heading towards him.

Splash!

He wasn't lucky this time around to dodge the strike at the last moment, his body was slashed by the claw, creating a deep wound across his torso. The wound wasn't clean—Daoka's claws had torn through flesh and fur alike, leaving ragged edges that poured dark blood.

"Arrgghhh!"

Luxy screamed furiously with his mouth wide open, bearing his abnormally sharp fangs.

Chomp!

His teeth snapped at Daoka's wrist severing it and with that, they both hopped backwards, creating a distance between one another. The severed hand dissolved into shadow before it could hit the ground.

Lucian and Mia felt a heavy wave of wind swept past their faces, Lucian in particular quickly dug his feet into the ground, stopping himself from blasting away.

Quickly turning his head back to the familiars in a distance, his eyes widened.

Daoka had a missing hand while Luxy's torso was dripping with black blood. They were both taking their stances again, seemingly unconcerned by the fatal wounds they were bearing, as if the injuries were nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

"What exactly just happened, are my eyes playing tricks on me!"

Mia on the other hand, who was still firmly standing on her spot, managed to see them move. She is Daoka's summoner so it wasn't that much of a surprise, she and Daoka's physical capabilities are on par.

"You truly didn't see it?" She questioned, not taking her eyes off the combatants in a distance.

Lucian admitted as he walked back to Mia's side. "I saw flickers of black and red energy zapping just before I closed my eyes."

His voice trailed off as he gestured helplessly at the two familiars, now standing at opposite ends of the dome, both bearing the marks of their clash.

"With your expression, I can guess my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. They truly moved, didn't they?"

Mia nodded in approval. "They made a ten seconds worth of movement within half of a second..."

"I've never seen Daoka fighting at this level."