*In a desolate city near the border of Brister, a male dog demihuman with medium black and yellow hair that was spikey, purple eyes and a black fluffy tail is jumping from roof to roof. The demihuman was wearing black jeans, a white t-shirt, and a rolled up sleeved blazer. He was whistling a happy tune all while the sounds of explosions and gunfire could be heard off in the distance. The sounds did not faze him as he continued on his way. He finally arrived at a roof where two males and a female who were all demihumans were waiting for him. The first male demihuman was a bat who was thin and had short spikey brown hair with a red blindfold on and having two Daos around his waist. He wore a black long-sleeved shirt and blue jeans. The second male was a gorilla demihuman who was bald, dark skin, and had red eyes with a tattoo of the Blood Moon on his arm. He was tall and muscular with a large jian on his back. He had on a black tank top, black cargo jeans and brown gloves. The female demihuman was a tiger who was wearing an orange Chinese dress with white lining. Her hair was black and tied into braided pigtails and her eyes were orange. She was holding a ji in her hand. The three demihumans hear the dog demihuman and turn around to see him walking towards them*
(Dog demihuman): Mr. Dog has come to play. Give me a bone and I’ll be okay.
(Bat demihuman): You’re late, Gael. Where were you?
(Gael): Nice to see you too, Aika. Only had to dodge a bunch of knights and explosions to get here.
(Aika): Don’t push your luck, mutt. Miho and Brutus were on the other side of the city and still managed to get here before you.
(Brutus): Enough fighting you two. We’ve got work to do.
(Gael): So, what are we taking out this time?
(Miho): Those Brister knights are starting to expand their territory. We’re going to take out one of their small bases to push them back a little.
*Gael walks out to the ledge of the roof they’re on and looks off in the distance to see a flag of the Blue Dragon Order emblem along with tents and knights running around*
(Miho): Gael, be a dear, and tells us how many are down there.
*Gael closes his eyes and concentrates on the Brister base where he begins to see the magic aura of all the knights in the base. Gael reopens his eyes*
(Gael): I’m sensing fifty knights in that base. Magic aura is normal. Nothing we can’t handle.
(Brutus): Well done. It’s time these knights learned to fear the Red Fang. Let’s go.
*Gael and the members of Red Fang jumped from roof to roof until they were just outside of the base of Brister. Grabbing his sword, Brutus was the first to jump off the roof of the building. He landed just outside the camp’s gate where his jian was plunged into the ground which caused a mini earthquake. The knights guarding the gate fell to the ground as did a few more knights that were in the camp. Aika, Miho, and Gael landed on the ground by Brutus just as the mini earthquake stopped. Aika and Miho attacked the guards at the gate with their respective weapons. Aika uses his Daos to slice the neck and chest of the first knight while Miho pierced the stomach of the second knight and turned him into ice. Gael ran inside of the base where magic yellow particles of light gathered in his hand and formed a bo staff made entirely out of light. Doing a spin to gain momentum, Gael manages to hit a knight in the head with his bo staff to knock him out. Five more knights run towards Gael where he throws the bo staff and it spins through the air knocking out one of the knights with a headshot. Gael runs towards the knights who prepare their swords to slash Gael only to miss him. Gael performs a baseball slide to evade the attacks of the knights and quickly rose to his feet to grab his staff which bounced off the head of the knight. Gael jumps in the air and does a 180 spin to gain momentum for a strike, but the knights dodge his attack just as he landed. One female knight swung her sword at Gael but he parried the attack with his staff. Using his free hand he chops the neck of the female knight to knock the wind out of her throat and stagger her. Two more knights swung their swords at Gael, but he ducked their attacks and used his staff to sweep the legs of the knights and forced them to fall to the ground. Gael then rolls forward toward the fourth knight and jumps onto the knight grabbing his shoulders, pulls him down to deliver a monkey flip and sends him flying into the two knights on the ground. Gael kips up in time to see that the female knight had recovered from the chop attack and was charging at him. Gael ducked and dodged quickly to avoid all of her attacks. This only fueled her anger and frustration with Gael and herself. Gael’s movements were wild, eccentric and undisciplined, yet he was in complete control of their fight. For the last six years the knight had been training and honing her skills to fight for her kingdom and here she was being toyed with by an untrained knight. The one question that ran through her mind was: Were his skills really that good, or am I just that weak? She was snapped away from her thoughts when Gael ducked her sword slash and delivered a palm strike to her jaw which sent her into the air. Gael jumped into the air as well and gathered magic particles between his hands to form a ball of magic energy and fired it at the female knight to send her crashing into the ground where she lands by some chairs and a table. Gael lands on the ground and runs to join the others where he sees them all fighting against knights as well. Aika swung his Daos which released compressed air strikes at his opponents slicing through their armor and skin. Miho plunged her ji into the ground releasing a wave of ice onto the knights which froze some of the knights and burned the body parts of other knights because of how cold the ice was. Brutus swung his large jian effortlessly slashing through groups of knights with little emotion on his face. As Gael saw his associates didn’t need his help, he closed his eyes and focused to sense the magic aura in the area. He got a strong reading coming from a nearby building and rushed towards it believing that there were knights inside too afraid to fight. As Gael was approaching the building, he saw a knight shoot a ball of dark magic at him. Gael easily jumps out of the way of the attack and sees that the knight is preparing three more magic balls to attack Gael. Gael smiles at this and closes his eyes to create three copies of himself out of light magic. The knight was stunned by this as he had never seen anyone perform a move like this using light magic. He re-composed himself and fired off his attacks as Gael and the three clones were closing in on him. His attack hit the three clones of Gael while the real Gael leaped into the air and struck the knight with a flying forearm. The attack sent the knight flying through the door and landing on the floor barely conscious. Gael entered the building ready to fight whatever knights were too cowardly and chose to hide but was shocked to see that the people inside of the building weren’t knights. The people that Gael was sensing all this time were injured citizens that ranged from old age to kids as young as three years old. Some were in wheelchairs, on crutches, lying in beds, had their arms in slings and bruises over their body. The people were frightened by Gael’s presence and Gael’s face grew pale as he wanted to know what was going on here. Wanting answers, Gael grabs the knight by the collar and picks him up*
(Gael): Talk! Why are there injured civilians here? Wasn’t this a Brister base for combat?
(Blue Dragon knight): No. This is a medical base for knights and civilians. Civilians who were unlucky enough to get caught in the crossfire are brought here for medical treatment, care, and safe evacuation.
*Gael couldn’t believe what he was hearing. All this time he and the others thought they were attacking a military base. Gael lets go of the knight and runs back out where he sees the others are busy setting up a powder keg*
(Gael): Guys stop! We got bad intel! This isn’t a military base, it’s a medical base!
(Aika): Yeah, we know. What else is new?
(Gael): What!?
(Brutus): The military base is a couple of blocks away from this location. It’s too well guarded for us to attack. However, their medical base isn’t.
(Miho): It’s a two-part plan, Gael. We attack their medical base, and they send other knights to rescue the people leaving their base less guarded. That’s when our troops and Hargus attack their base and force them to retreat.
*Gael was shocked at what he just heard. They knew they were attacking a medical base and didn’t tell him anything. This stunt was nothing new as they had pulled this on him in the past, but he let it slide as it was nothing major. However, he drew the line at involving innocent people in their fights. Especially those that were injured*
(Aika): Alright, we’re all set here. We’ve got one minute to escape before this place blows up.
(Gael): What about the injured civilians?
(Aika): What about them?
*Aika presses a button on the timer to start the countdown and runs toward the gate of the base followed by Miho and Brutus. Gael took a few steps following them but stopped when he looked back and saw the injured civilians and the remaining knights. Gael quickly ran back toward the powder keg and grabbed it. Using all of his strength he tossed the powder keg as high into the sky as he possibly could*
(Gael): Quick! Get down!
*Gael and the remaining knights dropped to the ground for cover as the powder keg exploded in the sky. The explosion knocked over a few tents, chairs, and tables but nobody was seriously injured or caught in the blast. Gael rose to his feet to see the damage that the blast caused and could sense the aura of knights approaching from the military base. Before taking off, Gael took one final look back at the injured female knight he fought earlier staring up at him with gritted teeth and mixed emotions running through her mind. Anger, confusion and thankfulness could be seen on her face*
(Gael): I’m sorry. This should have never happened.
*Gael quickly runs out of the base and into the desolate city just as more knights arrived. The knights didn’t pursue him as their top priority was to make sure everyone was okay and tend to the injured. As Gael was escaping, remorse could be seen on his face at what he and the others had done*
Author’s Note: Wow. We avoided a big disaster there. This is the first chapter in the series to not feature any of the main characters, but establishes the villains and new characters that we’ll be seeing in the final arc of the volume. The character of Gael is based off a multiple of characters. He’s based loosely off my dog, Xavier, who I unfortunately lost in 2020. He was a great dog, a loyal friend, and always there to greet me when I came home from work. I miss him everyday. His powers are based off of Lucario my favorite Pokémon. I love the aura powers and how Lucario uses it as some sixth sense. His personality is based off of Hiromu Takahashi a wrestler from New Japan and a member of LIJ my favorite wrestling faction. Hiromu’s personality is wild, creative, passionate and someone who always seems to be having fun. But at the same time he does take himself and opponents seriously when the time calls for it. That’s the kind of personality I wanted Gael to have as I was creating him. He’s a wild dog but at the same time he doesn’t want to harm those who can’t defend themselves. He has a sense of honor that the others don’t which puts him at odds with them sometimes. His fight will be a blend of Hiromu and Lucario. Hiromu’s wrestling style can best be described as wild and reckless abandonment while Lucario fights with a calm mind like a proud warrior so I want Gael’s fighting style to be controlled chaos. A style of fighting that looks reckless, unpredictable and undiscipline but is planned out in his mind to some degree. He’s a fighter who fights on instincts rather than logic. Please look forward to seeing more of him in the chapters. Thanks once again for reading and I’ll see you next time.