Chapter: chapter 25Let the fight... begin.Crusher wasted no time with his offensive strikes.He blasted forward with a leap, covering the distance between him and his opponent nearly instantly.Whoosh.He swung his fist straight at Green Bloody's face. With the power enhancement he had gotten from his familiar, the punch was catastrophic. The air itself seemed to compress around Crusher's fist, creating a small shockwave that ruffled Green Bloody's hair.No, more appropriately, the punch would have been catastrophic if it had hit.Green Bloody dodged the punch, much to Crusher's greatest shock, by ducking under his arm and swiftly appearing behind him. His movement was fluid in its grace.Unlike the few others Crusher had fought, he instantly recognized that Green Bloody wouldn't be easy.A collective gasp rippled through the crowd. No one had ever made Crusher miss so completely since today's tournament began.Wham!
Last Updated: 2025-04-03
Chapter: chapter 24The number of people in the warehouse was easily a thousand or two, if not even more. Every breath Ryder took felt like inhaling a cocktail of cheap alcohol and stale cigarettes.Bodies pressed against one another, creating a suffocating atmosphere with every breath. The warehouse—once used for storing imported goods that never made it past customs—now housed a different kind of contraband: violence for profit.It was dominated mainly by gangsters. Men and women with hard eyes and harder knuckles, bearing scars all over as if their bodies were illustrating the intensity of their misdeeds with scars that spoke louder than any confession.Although various other criminals were there, they weren't there for the fight but to carry out some more illegal activities that could help them bag a great deal of cash, mostly gambling."Five grand on Crusher breaking at least three bones!" shouted a man with a face that looked like it had been rearranged by an a
Last Updated: 2025-04-02
Chapter: Chapter 23As Ryder walked through the moonlit streets, his newly purchased cloak flowed gently in the evening breeze; he observed the multitude of posters plastered haphazardly on walls and poles.He pulled his hood lower, ensuring his face remained hidden. The best decision he could think of was hiding his face at all times since only a few people know his identity. His name is quite famous now, and as long as his face remains hidden, then it should be fine.A particular poster caught his eye, the paper still fresh, unlike most of the other weather-beaten announcements surrounding it.[Underlings TournamentEvery Tuesday and FridayOrganized at midnightLocation: undisclosedWhoever defeats the champion goes home with the prize.#10,000 Terra gold coin.]"They'll be organizing it today," Ryder thought inwardly, mentally calculating the hours until midnight. "It's Tuesday."He patted the pocket of his tr
Last Updated: 2025-04-01
Chapter: chapter 22With how popular Ryder was turning out to be, he was beginning to trend around the four nations of the United Kingdom.All the radio channels were booming. All they could say was about Ryder and the most recent disaster.—"Today on the recent unexplainable disaster: What exactly is Ryder? Man, myth, or monster?"—"One who contracted with the devil beast."—"Has the devil beast possessed the anonymous Ryder?"The news anchors delivered their lines with a wry grin that was supposed to be fake, just to appear presentable, but the excitement in their eyes betrayed them.This was the story of a lifetime. Ratings had never been higher.And as for the rumors? They multiplied at a crazy rate.Some said he could fly; others insisted he could walk through walls. One particularly creative someone said Ryder was actually three small children in a trenchcoat who had been possessed by his familiar.Cases like these do spring up once in a while about someone contracting a familiar from the devil pla
Last Updated: 2025-03-19
Chapter: chapter 21The morning sunlight penetrated through the half-drawn curtains, casting beams of soft sun rays across the living room.Ryder sat cross-legged on the wooden floor, his dark eyes fixed on the translucent figure hovering before him. Luxy—his familiar—floated in the air, the edges of his ethereal holographic form rippling once in a while like disturbed water."Familiars and their summoners are emotionally linked, but not you, Luxy," Ryder said, breaking the silence that had stretched between them for nearly an hour.This is one of the few times he had summoned Luxy out. This kind of summoning style wasn't the regular one; it was different.It may appear like a unique style he developed by himself at first, but then, deep down, he knew this was a failure.He has tried multiple times to summon Luxy out of his body to experience the world, but not once has he succeeded.Normally, summoning a familiar isn't something that is learned, because the knowledge of it naturally engraves itself on t
Last Updated: 2025-03-17
Chapter: chapter 20Normally, when a human receives a mark of invitation to the Astral Shadow plain, the mark is shapeless, resembling a scar. It is an ugly-looking, twisted thing that appears somewhere on their body all of a sudden—simply there one morning when the newly marked person wakes.New bearers of the mark might mistake it for perhaps a strange bruise from sleeping awkwardly. But, due to how widespread the summoning mark is and how summoners populate the entirety of planet Terra, it does not appear as a foreign mark.Everyone, including those familiar with the ways of summoners and those who have partaken in any practical aspect of summoning, recognizes it for what it truly is: an invitation to power beyond mortal comprehension.The marks vary in color—some blood red, others brown, a few with an orange marking. Tang Jim's had been a deep red, so dark it seemed to absorb the light from everywhere, located on his left arm. He'd spent years proudly displaying it at every chance he found, watching
Last Updated: 2025-03-17
