The Seven Demon's Tamer

Ryder, Brok, and Leo all had their jaws wide agape as they stared at Mara on her cloud, standing on it with gamma energy crackling all over her, eyes reflecting like lightning storms contained within emerald crystals.

Everyone had questions to ask, but their mouths remained wide open, unable to utter anything. The silence stretched between them, getting longer and longer, broken only by the occasional crackle of residual energy still dancing around Mara.

The puzzled expression on their faces was astronomical, but Brok's in particular was absolutely comical. Still frozen in his doggy stance, he tilted his head at an impossible angle to stare at Mara, who had just ascended to her cloud.

His jaw was practically touching the scorching ground, creating a perfect triangle of bewilderment, and his eyes were as wide as plates.

Being the only one left on the bare ground now, still unable to stand up, was embarrassing enough to make him want to dig a hole and disappear forever. But screw the embarrassment—the sudden change in Mara was theoretically impossible. Or at least, it should have been.

Just moments ago, she had been crawling beside him like a fellow victim of the Tian district's oppressive atmospheric torture.

They had been companions in suffering, like pathetic figures united in their shared inability to do anything more than army-crawl across the heated surface while trying to maintain their dignity... No, no, they had already lost all their dignity.

After a few seconds that felt like an eternity, the crackling gamma energy gradually faded from around Mara's form like smoke dissipating in the wind.

Unlike what most would expect after such an explosive display of power, she didn't flinch or lose energy due to her earlier performance. She remained standing confidently on her cloud, staring at her palms like she was in complete awe of her own display.

Her hands trembled slightly—not from exhaustion, but from the amazement of what she had just accomplished. The palms that had been pressed against the scorching ground just moments earlier were now glowing with a faint residual gamma energy.

"This... This has happened to me once before," Ryder exclaimed as he stared at Mara. "I have summoned such pure gamma energy once before, but I never understood what triggered it."

"Yeah, I agree with you," Leo nodded vigorously, his usual casual demeanor replaced by genuine interest. "This aura is eerily familiar to the aura you summoned to attract me the first time we met."

Leo's expression grew thoughtful as he tried to recall the exact time. "When was that..." He placed a finger on his jaw, reasoning, his eyes distant as he sifted through his memories.

"At the underling fight tournament," Ryder completed, the memory vivid in his mind like it was yesterday. "I summoned it then because it was the first battle I had taken seriously ever since I contracted my familiar. It was like something inside me just... awakened."

The three of them fell into silence, each processing different thoughts, but then...

"It's all down to Brok now," Mara broke the silence, stretching her head past her cloud to glance down at Brok, who was still sprawled on the ground in his doggy position.

Ryder and Leo were cut off from their thoughts as they turned to stare at Brok, who had become the sole focus of everyone's attention by being the only one still suffering on the heated surface.

"How sad," Leo commented with mock sympathy. "He's still in shock from watching someone he thought would be crawling beside him all day suddenly ascend to cloud-level comfort."

"I bet he thought she would be with him down there until the end of time," Leo added with a chuckle, remembering his own surprise at Mara's sudden energy outburst.

Brok, still bearing his comical expression on the ground with his mouth agape, finally snapped out of his daze and turned his head to stare directly at the scorching surface beneath him.

The reality of his situation—being the only remaining victim of the Tian district's oppressive aura in his crew—began to sink in.

*Sigh*

"So this is how it is then," Brok sighed deeply, exhaling condensed air from his mouth like a dense cloud of vapor.

His voice suddenly boomed across the residence as he continued, "Well, I refuse to let a lady surpass me!" The declaration echoed off the entire vicinity.

"Oh, he's stealing Mara's vibe," Leo commented disappointedly from his cloud. He tilted his head and gave an exaggerated thumbs down gesture, adding, "Booo! Show us something more amazing—I've seen a similar moment just a few minutes ago. Where's the originality, man?"

Woooooooooo.

A sound that they hadn't heard since they arrived at this residence suddenly interrupted their conversation, cutting through the air and their speech. Despite how foreign it sounded, they weren't completely clueless about it, thanks to Akira's earlier warnings about the environmental danger they would face alongside the heat.

The sound was unlike anything they had encountered before—part howling wind, part electrical rattle. It carried an alarming quality that made the hairs stand up.

Even Leo, Mara, and Ryder, who were safely positioned on their clouds, could sense the malice.

"This must be the shocking wind current Akira alerted us about," Ryder commented as he stared into the distance, his eyes narrowing as he observed carefully. "It's coming from the south as a single ripple—she never said this."

"Yeah, I can see that as well," Leo chimed in, his previous cocky attitude overwhelmed by genuine concern. "She wasn't joking when she explained it as wind carrying current. I can see clearly—lightning is rattling along with it in strokes."

"The wind ripple isn't moving too fast," Leo continued, calculating speed with the kind of precision that only he could provide due to his silver gaze, "but it'll reach him in about half a minute. Maybe less."

Mara gasped as she heard the quickness of the approaching danger. "Brok, hurry up! Try to figure out something before the ripple gets to you!"

Her voice carried across to Brok with evidence of urgency. She had experienced firsthand the torment of being trapped on that heated surface, and the thought of Brok enduring both the ground's punishment and the additional assault of the shocking wind current made her worried.

Brok remained unmoving, not giving any response, his head still down. The weight of being the last one trapped seemed to have frozen him in place and left him shattered.

"Can you hear me?" Mara called out again, her voice becoming even more desperate. "You have to figure out something! Try to move or brace yourself... or something! Anything!"

Still, Brok didn't flicker from his position, causing Mara to panic even more. She had been down there on the ground in the same position earlier, and she knew firsthand how much torture the heat was causing. Every second spent on that surface was packed with pain, and now he was about to face an additional punishment.

Akira had mentioned that nothing that would happen would cause them any significant harm, but the intensity from the distant gust spoke otherwise. The lightning dancing within the wind current looked like it could do serious damage to someone already weakened by the ground's oppressive heat.

Raising her hands upward to carefully examine them, Mara blurted out and scoffed, "Won't cause any significant damage, huh!"

Her palms were still reacting due to the pressure and heat the ground had subjected them to for so long. The damage was clearly visible—her palms bore the worst of it, but that didn't override the fact that the damage to her entire body had greatly increased her temperature.

Starting from her wrists and extending all the way to her elbows, the entire area was swollen and tomato red due to the accumulated heat from the ground that had tormented her.

The skin looked like it had been exposed to intense sunlight for consecutive hours, giving her a reminder of what Brok was currently going through.

Though she was confident she would heal from it all eventually, it would still take a couple of days for the damage to fully resolve. Her body's natural healing abilities as a summoner would help, but the recovery process would be neither quick nor comfortable.

Brok was still down there on the ground, enduring that same heat, and now an additional punishment was approaching him from the distance. The situation was becoming more dire by the second.

"Brok!" Mara screamed, her voice echoing across the training ground. "The gamma energy in you cannot be felt, but it can be perceived! Try to visualize it or perceive it in any way you can! If you can do just that, you will be able to reach the cloud!"

Brok's eyes widened as he heard Mara speak, her words echoing in his mind. It made sense—everything she said made perfect sense in a way that seemed almost obvious once it was spoken aloud.

She had specifically referred to the gamma energy within him, not gamma energy in general. This distinction was the key, and he understood it instinctively.

Every summoner possessed gamma energy, which was destructive and dangerous, yet despite the fact that this energy existed inside them, summoners remained unharmed by its presence.

The contradiction had always been a puzzling thought, but now he began to understand. The gamma energy wasn't separate from him—it was part of him, united with him in a way that made it both powerful and controllable if he could just learn to perceive it properly.

All he needed to do was perceive it, then he might be able to harness it. He wasn't entirely confident in this, but he had to try.

Closing his eyes, Brok focused. He didn't know if he was focusing on anything or what exactly he was focusing on, but he focused, closing his eyes tightly—shutting out all external distractions and turning his attention internally.

*Inhale* *Exhale*

*Inhale* *Exhale*

*Inhale* *Exhale*

He breathed in and out in a state of inner peace. He had heard about meditation techniques from various places, as well as having some integrated into his head by Yuki, but he had never taken them seriously until this moment.

"The wind current is going to be on you in less than ten seconds, man," Leo called out nonchalantly. "You'd better hurry up and figure something out if you don't want to be barbecued."

"Brok! Pl—" Mara started to shout another encouragement, but suddenly froze up mid-speech.

There was a sudden change in the aura around the entire training ground, a shift in the pressure that was distinct from the oppressive force they had been dealing with since their arrival. More specifically, there was a sudden change in the aura immediately surrounding Brok's position.

"If I remember correctly," Brok started, his voice carrying seriousness, "the supreme leader of the Luo district, Hinata Luo, taught us several techniques during our brief training session, and one of them is called 'Charge Rush.'"

The knowledge wasn't just theoretical—it came with memory and instinctive understanding that felt like he had been practicing it for years.

"That technique was imbued into our heads—not just knowledge of how to perform it, but also the experience of using it effectively. Even though I haven't performed it once in real life, it feels like I have performed it countless times."

The confidence and seriousness in his voice grew stronger with each word, as if the act of explaining the technique was helping him connect with the power it represented.

"The Charge Rush is a technique that can be performed by forcing out all your energy to power your entire body—your raw strength, your gamma energy."

"If I can perform it successfully just once," Brok continued, his voice carrying determination, "then my gamma energy and I will become one unified force!"

Leo's eyes widened, stunned. Brok was right—how come he had become so smart only now? He only had about five seconds before the wind current caught up with him.

*Inhale* *Exhale*

Brok took one final, deep breath, drawing air into his lungs, not bothered in the slightest by the impending wind current due to his immense concentration. His entire body tensed, every muscle hardened, ready to release its energy.

And then...

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!

His body—his entire body—suddenly erupted in purple flames that weren't quite fire and weren't quite energy; it was gamma energy.

The gamma energy wasn't just crackling around him like it had with Mara—it was burning throughout his entire form, transforming him into an embodiment of burning aura.

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!

His scream continued, building in intensity rather than fading away. The power buildup was overwhelming.

The entire area below his feet began vibrating with such intensity that everyone above had to tilt their heads past their clouds in anticipation of what was about to happen.

The ground beneath Brok was beginning to crack into spider web patterns spreading outward from his position.

The vibrations grew stronger and stronger, building toward what seemed like an impending explosion. The air itself seemed to be holding its breath, waiting for the moment when all that accumulated energy would finally release.

And then came the explosion.

*Pwwwoooooom*

But wait—something was wrong with that sound. Explosions were supposed to be sharp and dramatic and all that. This sound was... different. Muffled. Almost like...

"Wait a minute," Leo said slowly, his expression of anticipation slowly turning into confusion, "was there supposed to be an explosion? And if there was, why does it sound like..."

"Fart," Brok interjected, as if he could hear everyone's thoughts and wanted to spare them the embarrassment of having to ask.

He scratched his head nervously, the purple flames around his body diminishing as he admitted, "I think I farted."