The Seven Demon's Tamer

"Hell nahhhh!" Mara screamed from her cloud, her voice cracking with a mixture of disbelief and fury.

Her sympathetic concern for Brok moments ago had instantaneously transformed into anger.

"Son of a—" she started to continue her comment, but it was suddenly cut off by the arrival of the wind current they had all been dreading.

*Dzzzzzzzzzzzzz*

The electrical storm finally reached Brok with no obstruction whatsoever, delivering unto him what could only be described as the shock of his lifetime. The crackling energy engulfed his still-kneeling form like a cocoon.

"Arrrrrggggghhh!!!!" Brok screamed at the absolute top of his lungs, his voice echoing across the vicinity with such intensity that it seemed to make the very air vibrate.

However, instead of receiving the concerned support and worried encouragement he might have expected from his companions who had been having high hopes for him just moments before, he was struck with another wave of humiliation.

"Yes! Shock him to death! We no longer value your existence!" Leo's voice boomed across the distance, sounding utterly ruthless. His anticipation for Brok to prove some worth had completely evaporated.

"I'm sorry!" Brok managed to mouth desperately through the continuous electrical torture, his words barely reaching them as lightning bolts danced across his body. "Gassing out naturally—we all do that! It's a normal bodily function!"

His attempt at justification fell on completely deaf ears. If anything, his explanation only seemed to increase their anger.

"Booo!" Mara gave an exaggerated thumbs down gesture that made it look like she was trying to summon the very forces of disapproval from the pit of hell.

"We do those things at the RIGHT time! There's a time and place for everything, you jerk!"

Ryder, not to be the only one without a comment, cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "This is what happens when you break the tension at the worst possible moment! I think you should go back to the zoo where you came from, puppy!"

After what seemed like a good, long moment of torture, the lightning and electrical current finally began to fade away, leaving Brok's body smoking like a burning tire.

Despite the torture he had just endured, and despite the fact that his entire body was still crackling with residual electrical energy, Brok slowly managed to push himself up from his sprawled position on the ground.

His movements were shaky and unsteady, but he still had energy.

Bending his knees with considerable effort, Brok exhaled deeply, his breath coming out in visible puffs of steam. As he steadied himself, his expression began to grow serious once again, as if the electrical shock had somehow reset his mind.

The crackling, burning aura of gamma energy that had surrounded him before his unfortunate gas incident began to return, forming around his form like purple fire that danced rapidly, striking the ground. This time, however, there was something different about it—he wasn't going to mess up this time.

"*Charge Rush!*" he declared, his voice booming across the vicinity with intensity.

*Bwooooow*

The sound that accompanied his ascent was like nothing they had heard before—a deep, resonant whoosh was heard this time. Brok's body shot through the air at an incredible speed that was supposed to be breathtaking if only he had spectators to watch, but unfortunately, he didn't.

After his body traveled through the air at incredible speed, the momentum faded off perfectly as he reached his cloud.

"Yes!" Brok screamed to the air, his voice filled with joy and relief. "Hell yeah! You guys saw that, right? I actually did it! I—"

He suddenly froze mid-celebration as he became aware of the collective death glare that all three of his companions were shooting at him.

Their expressions were a cocktail of annoyance, disappointment, and disgust even up to this moment.

"Come on, guys!" Brok protested desperately, his voice sounding like a child pleading for forgiveness after breaking something valuable. "It was just an accident! The least you could do is cheer for me! I finally made it up here!"

"Humph!" came the simultaneous response from all three of his companions.

Without another word, they all turned away from him in unison and settled back onto their respective clouds, enjoying the pleasure of their clouds and completely ignoring Brok like he was invisible.

All Brok was able to do was sigh in defeat and disappointment. Victory truly feels hollow when there is no one to celebrate it with.

Moving his fingers gently as he settled onto his cloud, Brok suddenly noticed something that felt so unbelievable.

For the first time since entering the Tian district, he could actually feel his body properly. The oppressive pressure that had been crushing down on him was completely gone.

It wasn't just that the pressure was reduced or manageable—it was as if it had never existed at all. He could move freely, breathe easily, and think clearly.

"Huh," he murmured to himself, flexing his fingers like he was appreciating the ability to move his body. "So this is what it feels like to actually adapt to the environment rather than just endure it."

The realization brought a small smile to his face, but then...

*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*

A slow, unhurried clapping sound suddenly echoed from the ground below, causing all four of them to immediately turn their heads to stare at the source of this disturbance.

"Well done, well done," Akira cheered, and for the first time since they had met her, there was a genuine smile on her face rather than the mocking grin she mostly bore. This was a sincere smile of satisfaction and... pride.

"I am genuinely amazed," she continued, then pointed directly at Mara specifically. "Especially by you, Mara. That was quite the breakthrough you experienced."

The four companions exchanged glances, unsure how to react to this sudden display of positive emotion, but eventually, they shrugged their shoulders.

Stretching her hands toward the sky with a smooth motion, Akira paused for a moment as if she were gathering some invisible force. Then, with a sharp, decisive swing of her hands to the side, the purpose of her motion took over.

Instantly, responding to her gesture as if connected by some sort of invisible threads, all four clouds sharply dispersed and dissolved, leaving the foursome suddenly falling toward the ground without any warning whatsoever.

To Akira's surprise—and perhaps even more to their own surprise—none of them panicked as they descended through the air. There were no screams of fear, no flailing limbs, no desperate attempts to grab onto something that wasn't there.

Instead, all four of them, including Brok and Mara who had been struggling just moments ago, landed on the ground with controlled poses straight from superhero movies.

Ryder landed in a perfect crouch, his arms extended for balance. Leo touched down with one arm. Mara executed a backflip descent. Even Brok didn't humiliate himself this time around, landing with one foot on the ground and the other suspended in the air.

"Wow," Akira muttered in puzzlement, the words escaping her lips before she even realized she was speaking them aloud. "You certainly have evolved far more than I expected."

The sudden change was remarkable. Just hours earlier, two of them had been crawling around; now all four of them were standing confidently on the ground, showing no signs of discomfort from the pressure in the air that had been crushing them earlier.

Leo, never one to let a chance for cockiness go to waste, immediately seized upon Akira's moment of admiration. He struck a pose and bore a smug grin before saying, "Yeah, shower us with more praise! I like it!"

"Shut up!" Akira snapped, her moment of admiration instantly disappearing as her usual sharp demeanor returned. "You don't have the right to make such statements... especially after the underhanded tactics you pulled."

Leo's proud and smug grin instantly faded into nervousness as he took a nervous step back, rubbing his hair and trying to laugh away the situation.

"You were manipulating the gamma energy in the air around you, Leo," Akira explained with precision exactly what Leo did, with a cold grin extending on her face. "You weren't adapting to it in the way the training was designed. You didn't think I would notice, did you?

But," she added with a slight shrug as the coldness in her tone instantly disappeared, "I still have no problem with that approach."

Moving closer to Leo, she closed the gap between them and placed her hand on his shoulder in a gentle gesture. "You proved that you have a greater understanding of gamma energy manipulation than any of them, old man."

"Old man?!" Leo snapped, his voice rising. "Don't call me that! And how did you figure that out? I don't look that old, do I?"

Akira ignored Leo's protests completely and continued with her analysis. "Oh, also, you're not actually a summoner and possess no gamma energy inside you, so logically speaking, you shouldn't be capable of manipulating gamma energy at all. The fact that you can do it proves you are as impressive as you were given credit for."

"Yeah, thanks for the backhanded compliment," Leo said dismissively, slapping Akira's hand away from his shoulder with more force than was strictly necessary. "Really makes me feel appreciated."

Ryder, who had been listening to this exchange with growing impatience, decided to interject and bring the conversation back to the important matters. "Now that we're done with your little test, what's next? Are we finally capable of learning the Tian specialty techniques?"

"Yes!" Brok continued, excited with stars practically shining in his eyes as he spoke. "The ability to draw out and harness the affinities of our familiars! That's what we came here to learn, right?"

"Well, guess what..." Akira announced with a cheerful tone that immediately made all four of them lean forward in anticipation, waiting for the confirmation they desperately wanted to hear.

"No!"

The cheerful tone in which she delivered this crushing disappointment somehow made it even worse than if she had been angry or serious about it.

"What?! Why?!" Mara screamed, her voice cracking with frustration and disbelief. "We're already capable of blending into the Tian district environment! We proved that we can handle the oppressive pressure! By your own standards, we should be at the level of the Tian in terms of gamma energy manipulation!"

Akira nodded thoughtfully, playing with some strands of her long black hair as she considered Mara's protest. "Yes, you're absolutely right, and for that very reason..." she said, taking a pose that suggested she was about to make some grand announcement.

She paused, clearly enjoying the suspense she was creating, then announced with a wide grin that showed all her teeth: "I will be teaching you the Tian techniques!"

The four companions stared at her in stunned silence for a moment, their brains struggling to process and understand which side she was on. She had just said no, and now she was saying yes. Which was it?

However, they knew better than to celebrate too early until they were in the clear. There were no happy cheers from any of them, no jumping up and down with excitement, no expressions of joy or relief. They simply waited.

"But..." Akira continued, and that single word carried all the weight. "Here's the catch: you have to demonstrate that you can perform seven different techniques from among the seventy-seven techniques you learned during your time in the Luo district."

She looked around at their faces, clearly enjoying their expressions. "Can anyone here show me these techniques? It would be my absolute delight to watch you perform them."

She waited, allowing the silence to stretch for what felt like an eternity but was probably only about thirty seconds. During this time, the four companions exchanged glances, especially with Brok, but with the look on his face, they sighed, knowing it was pointless.

"Then I guess we'll be doing this my way," Akira concluded with satisfaction. After all, this outcome had been exactly what she expected.