Ryder wasn't quite surprised at the situation unfolding right before his eyes.
He knew there was something up right from the time he got into the restaurant.
More so, when he got into this section of the restaurant.
The muscular size and strong presence of the disguised workers made him already know that he might be having a problem soon.
Furthermore, he was most certain of the fact that they allhave ill intent from the moment he noticed their piercing gaze on him.
It was like being watched by a pack of wolves, acting slow and cunning.
He never expected this situation he had found himself in as the outcome of being unable to pay for his meal.
'Go Ryder, go Ryder,' Luxy cheered in a sarcastic manner from Ryder's head. it's yiur time to shine.'
'Shut up.'
"Excuse me?" Ryder narrowed his eyes. "Could you please come again? I hate lies, but I hate insults even more?"
A smile extended on the man's face as he rubbed his red hair backwards. "I just called you trash. I know that is almost like praise for someone like you who isn't worth a..."
Swoosh
Ryder's movement was so fast that no one in the room was able to react as he grabbed onto the worker's neck.
One moment, he was seated calmly at the table; the next, his fingers were wrapped around the red-haired man's throat, lifting him several inches off the ground, effortlessly.
"Take you hands off," Mo Fan, who was being held by Ryder, attempted to knock Ryder's hand off with as much strength as he could muster, expecting to deal a critical damage but that didn't seem to be the case.
It felt like he smacked a concrete pillar.
"What the hell?" Mo Fan's eyes widened, genuine fear flickering in them for the first time. This wasn't how it was supposed to go.
He was Mo Fan, a red marked contract summoner from the Red-Eastern guild. "How is this possible?"
Swoosh!
Mo Fan sailed through the air, his red hair dancing like a streak of flame, before crashing into a stack of ceramic bowls.
"I'm done playing cool; I'll be leaving now," Ryder concluded after he had flung Mo Fan towards the pile of ceramics.
Don't get in my way if you don't want to get hurt. Ryder concluded and then he attempted to walk out.
Too bad that wasn't near enough.
Everyone in the room was slowly moving and then blocked his path. A total of 14 able-bodied men and one lady present. They had formed a semi-circle around him, their faces carrying various expressions ranging from anger to excitement.
It seemed the pretense of being noodle shop workers had been abandoned entirely.
"Young man, you have disrespected the Red-Eastern guild in the worst way," someone spoke to Ryder. It was an older man with a scar running from his left eye to his jaw.
His voice carried the weight of authority, suggesting he held some rank within the guild; however, Ryder couldn't care less.
"I see no suitable punishment for you apart from execution." From the speaker's left arm, red smoke began to flow outward, materializing in the air as his familiar beast manifested.
Out of the red mist, a mantis formed—a lava mantis. Mo Fan wasn't the only one red marked contracted summoner. They all were.
Standing before the mantis towering a couple of feets above him, unfazed, was Ryder.
"Are you sure you want to do this? I'll give you a chance to end this madness now," Ryder spoke with his head down, clenching his fist.
For some strange reason, he didn't recognize this version of himself.
"Is that what you intend to be your last words? I don't approve; say something brave, will ya!" Someone commented while the others in the room snickered mockingly.
They all saw what Ryder did to Mo Fan, but still, they weren't afraid. Everyone there knew how powerful Mo Fan was, but they didn't really take it as a big deal that he was taken down so easily.
'Mo Fan never summoned his familiar.' That's what most of them thought, exchanging glances of reassurance. And besides, Ryder was outnumbered.
Familiars are beasts that all have affinities, and without summoning them wo they can fight with there incredible physical capabilities and affinity, even powerful summoners may seem weak.
It wasn't just about strength or size or ferocity, it was most times about the affinity.
Affinities refer to magical abilities, such as fire which the Dracogon possesses; lava which the lava mantis threatening Ryder possesses and so on.
"Seems like you guys are really testing my patience," Ryder spoke through his cloak, his voice carrying a note of finality, then he raised his head upwards, revealing his red, glinting eyes.
"I won't be giving you guys any more chances, allow me out silent and peacefully if you don't want to get caught up in the mess I'll cause if you do otherwise,"
Despite the seriousness in Ryder's voice, his warning fell on deaf ears.
The most dangerous of emotions, Pride, had taken root too deeply in the hearts of the Red-Eastern guild members.
They had come too far to back down now, especially in front of their peers. Retreat meant shame, and shame was worse than death in their warrior culture.
Everyone, all at once, ripped off the cloth on their left arm, revealing their shoulders with red marks. Their red marks began to glow, exuding red mists as they collectively summon out their familiars too.
"You know the downside about summoning I've noticed?" Ryder started, his voice conversational, as if he were discussing the weather. "It takes too much time."
He started with the lava mantis directly in front of him.
Bang!
The lava mantis receive a heavy blow on his head so fast that it crashed face flat to the ground, unable to react.
Then, Ryder flashed out of sight and appeared in front of the nearest summoner still in the process of summoning.
Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham!
The sounds echoed through the shop like explosions, each one marking the fall of another Red-Eastern guild member.
And their incomplete summoning all canceling out until there was no one left standing.
"I guess that all, at least all of this didn't cause too much disturbance."
Turning around to walk away, Ryder realized he was face to face with the mantis he had crashed to the ground just a moment ago.
"Oh, I nearly forgot about you. You really want to fight, huh?" said Ryder. "Even when your summoner is down?"
Ryder turned to the mantis's summoner lying unconscious among the debris, a trickle of blood running down his forehead.
'I like its loyalty. I wonder if my familiar is as loyal.'
'RYDER!!!!' Luxy screamed in his head, causing Ryder to burst into laughter. 'I can't believe you would even question my loyalty! After everything we've been through!'
Ryder could nearly picture Luxy standing on two feet dramatically and holding onto his waist...
Bang!
Suddenly, like a flash, the mantis could be seen at the spot where Ryder had been standing about half a second ago, its foreleg crashed into the ground from an attempt to slice Ryder into half.
'That was quick,' Ryder realized with widened eyes as he slid on the ground behind the gigantic lava mantis.
Screeeeeennnnncccchhhhh!!!!
The creature screamed to the air and rushed at Ryder again with a barrage of death-strikes.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Ryder moved again, dodging each attack with different poses, I mean, selfie-worthy poses before zapping behind the familiar.
"Aren't you a good boy." He spoke, rubbing its abdomen playfully. "You still don't want to consider giving up."
The creature whirled around, its forelegs slashing at empty air as Ryder maneuvered from its attacks again with almost insulting ease.
Swoosh!
Angrily, the mantis spread its wings and flew around the area where it stood in a clockwise rotation with an unpredictable surge of speed, expecting to trap Ryder with the element of surprise.
But to its own surprise, Ryder was at the corner of the room, slurping noodles casually and watching from his cloak at the confused creature as it flew around like a bug.
The mantis halted his useless attempt and screeched in anger. From its mouth, red, glowing liquid began to bubble up, increasing the temperature of the entire shop.
The air distorted with heat waves as the wooden beams of the shop began to smoke, tables and chairs scorching where they stood.
It was preparing something big and devastating.
"What the hell, this could get ordinary civilians injured." Ryder peaked through the window and could see people frantically running away. "They really should hurry, because things are about to get really ugly."
Inspecting properly with his other senses and eyes closed, Ryder confirmed, "There are no humans within a 100-meter radius apart from the unconscious summoners I've taken down in this shop. They must have noticed we are fighting here."
His senses, far more than those of ordinary humans, could detect the absence of heartbeats or breathing within that range—all thanks to the shared senses he had with Luxy as far as he focused deeply.
The shop had been evacuated, or perhaps the commotion had scared away customers from it. Either way, it meant he could stop holding back quite so much and kick this overgrown mantis's butt.
Extending his hands outward, Ryder took a bit of his time before he clapped. The moment his palms collided, a gust of wind blew out all the unconscious bodies of the summoners far away, out of the building.
Even destroying the building and sending the wood that was once its foundation coursing through the air, scattered.
Bwoooooooom!
The mantis spat out a powerful violent stream of red molten lava in a massive quantity that proved impossible to exist in a creature of its size
It wasn't just a spray like one would expect to come out from this familiar, but a genuine tsunami of liquid fire that surged across the remnant of the destroyed shop, consuming everything in its path.
Tables, chairs, utensils—all turned to ash in an instant, the very air seeming to ignite as sparks rose.
Half of the noodle shop was reduced to nothing in an instant. Where once stood wooden walls and a thatched roof made of palm fiber, now there was nothing but ash.
Beyond, the street could be seen, mercifully empty of bystanders who could have been caught in the crossfire.
Luckily, their disturbance had been enough to drive everyone away from their vicinity.
Ryder evaded yet again perfectly, surfing on the lava stream on a makeshift shortboards, cracking hos knuckles.
His movement was like a blur, his body dancing through the destruction, predicting the paths of destruction before they fully formed with the grace of someone with true fighting talent despite that he had never fought.
Vwoom!
The mantis flew into the air and toward Ryder with its forelegs ready. Its wings, translucent and glinting with red heat, as they carried the creature through the air like a missile towards Ryder amidst the destruction.
Ryder stood his ground, feet planted firmly, arms extended as he held the mantis's forelegs at bay. His cloak billowed around him, burnt at the edges but somehow still intact.
"I cannot believe you are provided me with the opportunity to test out my capabilities. I might not spare your life though, but thank you."
Zzzzzzzzttt.
The mantis's wings accelerated with blurry speed, and once again, it zapped backwards, then rotated clockwise around Ryder. This movement caught Ryder in the middle this time.
The mantis's speed kept increasing and increasing until extraordinary, creating a spinning vortex around Ryder that contained not just the mantis but also superheated air that left behind a red trail.
In short, this was a miniature tornado of destruction.
From its body pores, lava began to flow out, surrounding its body and coating it in hot red molten lava.
Readying his hand, Ryder clenched his fist, and then the mantis launched towards him.
BOOM!
The explosion and shockwave that erupted as they collided blasted everything away within their vicinity not even sparing buildings.
As the dust began to settle, two figures could be seen from the haze—one standing tall, the other barely standing on the ground with lazily bent legs.
Ryder, was the one standing tall. The mantis intimidating form was hurt and smoking now.
Its exoskeleton, previously gleaming like polished jewelry, now cracked in several different places, revealing the body beneath its outer body.
Still, it struggled to rise, refusing to succumb to defeat even in the face of Ryder's overwhelming power.
Yes, familiars are naturally stubborn.
"If I go all out and kill this familiar, then what next?" Ryder's gaze was cold as he asked Luxy.
"Why do you ask? Do you plan to kill it?" Luxy asked. "Not that I mind though."
This caused a smirk to extend on Ryder's face. "I'm about to be on the news from what I can see. Lets get the insect six feet under."