The Seven Demon's Tamer

**VWOOM!**

Akira's body sliced through the air in a flash of motion so fast that it was as if she had teleported. The distance between herself and Mara—who had been positioned quite a distance away from her after the previous exchange—disappeared in an instant.

Mara's eyes widened as she realized what was happening, but there was no time to react.

**WHAM!**

The kick Akira delivered to Mara's torso was unlike anything she had experienced during their training. This wasn't a careful blow delivered to teach a lesson—this was a strike meant to be used in a real fight.

Mara's body arced through the air like a projectile, sailing high into the sky. After a moment, she disappeared into the clouds, her form growing smaller and smaller as she rose higher and higher.

"*Iron Co—*"

Brok had begun chanting his defensive technique, recognizing that he was likely Akira's next target. But he had made a huge mistake—in a battle of this intensity, taking the time to spell out his technique was the perfect definition of the wrong move.

Before he could finish his chant, Akira was on him. Her hand covered his mouth, cutting off his words mid-syllable. In one fluid motion, she lifted his entire body upward—masculine build full of weight and muscle—as if he were made of paper.

**SLAM!**

She slammed him headfirst into the ground with such force that the impact created a small crater the size of his head on the ground. Not just a crater actually, but the earth actually cracked around the point of impact, spider-web cracks spreading outward for several meters.

However, Akira wasn't finished. Raising Brok's dazed form from the ground with one hand, she then hurled him toward Leo and Ryder, who had been positioned behind her, simply staring and enjoying her fight.

Brok's body flew through the air, forcing his teammates to scatter and quickly sidestep to dodge his body coming toward them like a human projectile.

"I wonder," Ryder began, his voice calm despite the chaos around him. He walked forward with silent footsteps, closing the distance between himself and Akira as he continued speaking. "Why are you fighting purely with your raw strength instead of using the techniques you taught us as well?"

Akira's grin widened. "And who told you I wasn't using the techniques?"

She gestured casually as she spoke. "You see, I am not at the same stage as you all—needing to chant out the techniques I want to perform before using them."

She pointed directly at Ryder with her finger. "Why aren't you using the techniques, Ryder?"

Throughout the battle, while Leo, Mara, and Brok had all integrated the newly learned techniques into their attacks, Ryder, on the other hand, had been fighting entirely on his physical capability as a black-marked summoner.

Ryder stopped just within battle range of Akira, close enough to strike but far enough to react to her movements.

"I guess you caught me," he admitted with a slight chuckle. "I'll start using them now."

"*Explosive Ru—*"

But before Ryder could finish his technique chant, Akira lunged forward with lightning speed. Her move from dealing with Brok had slowly become her favorite—disrupting an opponent's technique preparation.

Her hands reached out, intending to grab Ryder's mouth just as she had done with Brok, to silence him mid-chant and leave him in a temporary state of confusion, and to deliver a devastating follow-up attack.

However, in that moment, she severely underestimated the young black-marked summoner standing before her.

Ryder's head tilted sideways with fluidity, his body moving with a speed at just the last moment that caught even Akira off guard. Her grasping hands continued coursing through the air, meeting nothing but empty space, leaving her widely overextended and completely exposed.

**WHAM!**

Ryder delivered a punch directly to Akira's stomach, and the impact was unlike anything that had occurred in the battle so far. The strike wasn't just powered by his natural strength—it was enhanced by the unconscious application of the First Fall technique, which he had implemented without chanting any word.

Akira's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets as the punch connected. The force was so tremendous that it didn't just create a ripple around their immediate vicinity—it delayed as if time and space were trying to register the intensity. A wave of pure gamma energy traveled for miles in every direction.

The impact was so powerful that it reached Master Sung, who was still hurriedly making his way toward them on his thunder whisker koi. Even at his considerable distance, he felt the pressure wave wash over him.

"Impossible!" Akira gasped as her legs skittered backward across the ground. The impact robbed her lungs of functioning, and for the first time in the battle, she looked genuinely devastated.

She eventually came to a halt several meters away, dropping to one knee on the ground, her hand pressed against her stomach where Ryder's punch had connected. Pain—real pain—flickered across her face.

'He's also able to use the techniques without chanting them out!' she realized with shock. 'He attempted to chant the Explosive Rush as a decoy, predicting my next move, and it all played out perfectly.'

He had not only matched her level of technique mastery but had used his assumed inexperience as a weapon against her. By making her believe he needed to say out his techniques, he had lured her into a trap of her own making.

"*Haaaaa!*"

From her crouched position on the ground, Akira didn't even bother with standing at first, but instantly launched herself forward, her body moving with renewed determination and a healthy respect for her opponent's capabilities.

Brok—who had managed to recover from Akira's earlier strikes—barely saw her move. Even Leo, who was matching their pace, could only see a blur now. The speed was beyond anything he had witnessed during the entire combat, a level of Explosive Rush mastery that made theirs seem like child's play in comparison.

"Remember, you didn't give us any rules, Akira," Ryder smirked in mockery. "You can summon your familiar to accompany you if you want."

"*Haa!*"

She swung her fist with so much intensity that visible gamma energy crackled around it like lightning. The punch was a perfect integration of the First Fall combined with her strength and accumulated momentum from the charge.

**SWOOSH!**

But despite the perfection of her technique, the devastating power behind her strike, and the speed at which it approached, the attack failed to connect.

Ryder dodged the punch with an almost casual fluidity, his body moving just enough to avoid the strike with just an inch of distance on purpose.

However, while her attack had missed, Ryder's retaliation was perfectly placed.

Ryder delivered a full-strength punch, every ounce of his strength amplified by the First Fall technique. The gamma energy around his fist was so intense that the air around his fist ignited.

**WHAM!**

The impact was destructive. Akira's body was blasted away from the point of contact with such tremendous force that she was launched entirely out of their field of view.

Her whole body disappeared beyond the horizon in a matter of seconds.

The fight was over. Ryder had taken down the supreme leader of the Red Eastern Guild.