The Summoner: Rise Of The Night Vanguard

CHAPTER 9: THE DEVIL'S DEN

Adrian pushed open the heavy steel door and walked into the warehouse, and every conversation inside stopped at once.

Over thirty men turned toward the entrance. Some sat on wooden crates playing cards, while others leaned lazily against support pillars with baseball bats resting on their shoulders.

A few of them cleaned knives while another absentmindedly spun a pistol around his finger. The air smelled of cigarettes, sweat, and old oil.

The moment they recognized Adrian, the warehouse erupted into mocking laughter.

“So that’s him?”

“The dead kid?”

“I expected someone bigger.”

“Boss really sent all of us for one brat?”

Adrian stepped fully inside and calmly scanned the space. Thirty-two men after a brief headcount. Even though he was outnumbered, he had no fear on his face.

The warehouse had one main entrance and no obvious secondary exit. The layout was almost perfect for what he intended.

His gaze shifted to the man standing closest to him.

“Where’s Smoke?”

The thug scratched his thick beard before bursting into another fit of laughter.

“You came all this way just to die?”

Another man stood from his crate, stretching his muscles.

“You think Boss meets nobodies?”

Someone shouted from the back.

“Let’s make this quick. Break both his legs.”

More laughter followed.

Adrian exhaled quietly.

“I’ll ask one last time.” His voice remained calm and even.

“Tell me where Smoke is.”

Everyone fell silent, and then another thug spat onto the concrete floor.

“And if we don’t?”

Adrian slowly drew out the B-Rank dagger he currently carried. Nyx had still not been recovered, but this blade was doing a great job.

“If you tell me where he is… I’ll leave the rest of you alive.”

For one heartbeat, nobody spoke. Then the warehouse exploded with laughter again. One man laughed so hard he nearly fell off his crate.

“You all hear that?”

“He thinks he can kill us.”

“It’s thirty against one.”

“Someone pinch me.”

The biggest thug in the room cracked his neck and stepped forward.

“Enough talking.” He pointed a thick finger directly at Adrian.

“Kill him.”

The first thug swung a steel pipe toward Adrian’s head. Adrian dodged it easily and drove his fist into the man’s throat. The thug dropped instantly, gasping for air.

Before his body even hit the floor, Adrian spun and slammed a sharp elbow into another man’s nose. Blood poured out from the broken nose.

The third attacker lunged with a knife, but Adrian sidestepped, grabbed the man’s wrist, and twisted hard. A loud snap rang out as the wrist bent the wrong way, making the knife fall. Adrian caught it midair and, without hesitation, drove it into the attacker’s shoulder. The man screamed in pain.

“Spread out!” someone shouted.

“Don’t let him isolate us!”

The remaining men adjusted their formation and attacked together this time. Knives, chains, bats, and even pipes came crashing from every direction.

Adrian’s recent training with Noir was finally showing its full value. His footwork was fast, every dodge wasted his enemies’ movements, and every counterattack disabled someone.

Someone managed a lucky punch against Adrian’s jaw, making his head snap sideways, but before the attacker could celebrate, Adrian’s knee slammed into the man’s stomach, followed by a strike to the neck that knocked him unconscious.

Minutes passed, and the warehouse slowly transformed into a battlefield of broken crates, bent weapons, blood, and injured bodies. Roughly half the gang were badly injured or unconscious.

The remaining men began to hesitate after watching the boy they underestimated create a one-sided massacre.

“W-What the hell…”

Another thug swallowed hard.

“He’s... he’s beating all of us. This isn’t normal.”

One man shouted, “Stop holding back! Bring out your summons!”

Immediately, summoning circles flared across the warehouse floor as light appeared in multiple places.

A massive gray wolf landed with a deep growl. A black badger emerged beside another thug. A giant python slithered across the concrete, and soon the warehouse became crowded with different beasts.

Adrian quietly watched them appear. His expression didn't change one bit.

The gang regained some of their confidence as they resumed taunting him.

“Let’s see how you handle this.”

“You should’ve stayed dead.”

Darkness began to gather behind Adrian, and Noir emerged from it. He planted his broadsword into the ground, standing behind Adrian.

“Noir, activate Overdrive.”

For the first time since the battle began, Noir began his transformation.

Darkness exploded outward from the knight’s body. The black armor cracked apart before rapidly rebuilding itself into heavier blood-red armor covered in glowing runes.

His height increased, his shoulder armor broadened, the broadsword doubled in size, and an overwhelming pressure burst across the warehouse, making every beast instinctively step backward.

At the same moment, living shadows climbed Adrian’s legs. The Night Vanguard Cloak wrapped around his shoulders like liquid darkness, its hood partially covering his face.

Adrian slowly raised his dagger and pointed it toward the enemy.

“…Kill them all.”

Noir vanished, leaving only an afterimage where the knight had stood.

The first wolf didn't even see the attack coming. Its body was split cleanly in two as blood poured across the floor.

The knight appeared behind the fallen beast and swung again. Another bear summon lost its head in a single strike.

A panther leaped from the side, aiming to attack from Noir’s blind spot, but Noir grabbed it midair by the throat and slammed it through a pillar of the building.

The gang finally understood that this humanoid summon was a monster.

Chaos erupted as animal summons attacked from every direction. Under normal circumstances, they would have unleashed their special abilities, which were also called Active Skills, but there was one critical problem none of them had accounted for.

The warehouse itself.

The space was simply too cramped. A giant ape couldn’t move freely without hitting allied summons. The python couldn’t coil without trapping teammates, and even an eagle lost its aerial advantage because of the tight space.

Their greatest strength became their biggest weakness. They were forced into pure close combat, exactly where Noir and Adrian excelled.

The Shadow Knight became an avatar of death itself. His broadsword carved through beast after beast as every swing carried overwhelming force. Every summon in his path was killed without mercy.

Meanwhile, Adrian did not remain idle. He intercepted every thug and summon trying to attack Noir from behind.

A hyena lunged at Adrian as he sidestepped and immediately stabbed its owner, who was attacking beside it, killing both the beast and its summoner.

Screams echoed endlessly as a huge amount of blood covered the concrete floor until it became too slippery to stand properly. One by one, every beast and the remaining thugs fell.

Finally, silence returned.

Adrian stood in the center of the ruined warehouse. His breathing was heavy. Blood soaked his clothes from head to toe, some of it his own, most of it not.

Around him lay broken weapons, blood, the fading remnants of defeated summons, shattered crates, and dead bodies scattered everywhere.

“They forced him to do this,” he told himself as he tried to calm himself down.

“If only they gave him Smoke’s location, none of this would have happened.”

“They outnumbered and attacked him first, not minding that he was way younger than them. They would have killed him at every opportunity, so why should he feel guilty for their deaths?”

Noir slowly returned to Adrian’s side. The crimson armor of Overdrive was stained dark with blood. Even the Shadow Knight’s breathing had grown noticeably heavier as the battle had pushed both master and summon close to their limits.

Adrian looked around the destroyed warehouse and exhaled slowly.

If someone had told him two days ago that he would be standing in a warehouse surrounded by the dead bodies of over thirty summoners and their summons, he would have told them they were crazy.

Clap.

A single clap echoed through the silence, then came more.

Clap… clap… clap…

Adrian’s eyes narrowed as he slowly turned toward the sound.

Standing at the door of the warehouse was a familiar man dressed in a black coat. A lit cigarette rested lazily between his lips.

Smoke.

He smiled as he looked down at the massacre below, and his gaze swept across the countless fallen bodies before returning to Adrian.

“…Impressive.”

He took a slow drag from his cigarette before exhaling a stream of smoke.

“From the boy who went on his knees to beg for money… to the boy who awakened a summon and now thinks he’s invincible.”

His smile widened.

“But now… I finally understand.”

“A killer will always be a killer.”

“I just need the dagger. Give it to me, and I’ll leave peacefully,” Adrian told Smoke, but the man had no intention of listening.

“That’s not possible. I already have a buyer coming tomorrow morning to purchase it for three million dollars. Can you imagine that?” he replied, smiling at Adrian.

He reached beneath his coat and slowly pulled out a familiar black sheath.

Nyx.

The moment Adrian saw it, his eyes locked onto the weapon. Smoke casually twirled the dagger in one hand before resting it across his shoulder.

“I’ll ask one last time. Give me my dagger,” Adrian said seriously.

Smoke laughed.

“No.”

He tossed the cigarette onto the blood-soaked floor and crushed it beneath his boot.

“And since you’ve murdered almost every man I own…”

“…I suppose it’s only fair that I kill you myself.”

A strange silence settled over the warehouse. And then a massive emerald-green summoning circle spread across the concrete beneath Smoke’s feet.

The warehouse lights flickered violently as a chilling hiss echoed throughout the building. The darkness behind Smoke suddenly shifted as something enormous began moving, making Adrian narrow his eyes as he tried to see what was coming.

Two green eyes appeared first.

Then came a gigantic black head covered in glowing black scales. The creature continued slithering forward as its body seemed endless.

When it finally stopped, the enormous serpent had completely coiled itself around Smoke like a living fortress as its cold green eyes stared directly at Adrian.

Its forked tongue slowly flicked through the air, sending a cold sensation down Adrian’s spine.

The system suddenly rang inside his mind.

[WARNING]

A Low B-Rank summon has been detected.

Current enemy exceeds the Host's combat capability.

“A B-Rank summoning?” Adrian said, shocked. Noir in Overdrive was also a Low B-Rank summon, but he was already running out of mana as the Overdrive state consumed a lot of mana. This was going to be a tough battle.

Even Noir instinctively stepped forward in front of Adrian, planting his massive broadsword firmly into the ground.

Smoke smiled after seeing Adrian’s reaction.

He gently placed one hand against the Black Mamba’s scales, and his fingers slowly pressed against the serpent.

The scales beneath his hand suddenly began glowing with a dark emerald light, making Adrian frown.

The glowing scales spread across Smoke’s body as his skin disappeared beneath countless black scales.

Smoke disappeared into the Black Mamba.

The serpent remained fully summoned, but the two had simply become one, making the warehouse suddenly feel much smaller.

The system rang again.

[WARNING]

Fusion Skill Detected.

Reassessing Threat...

A brief pause followed.

Then another notification appeared.

[Threat Level Updated.]

Current Enemy Rank: HIGH B-RANK.

“It got stronger?” Adrian’s eyes widened in shock.

Smoke’s voice echoed through the warehouse, deeper, colder, and almost inhuman, as though two beings were speaking in perfect unison.

“…Show me whether your miracle can save you twice.”