Chapter 3: The City

Vincent

I ran through the gate as soon as he opened it. I looked in the sky- early morning, too early- nothing would be opened yet. I walked off feeling depressed. But I remembered that I can't let my emotions own me, so to take my mind off my village, I started training. At first I was just punching and kicking at air, but then a man came up to me.

"Hey, you're pretty good." He said. "Mind if we spar?"

I sized the man up. He was tall, muscular, and had an insane pillar of dark blonde hair sticking from his head.

"The name's Paul Phoenix- the greatest fighter in the WORLD!" he said smugly.

I raised my hand. "Vincent."

He took it and shook. I bowed to him and we started sparring. He came at me with his fist. I sidestepped it and- for a moment forgetting that he was much stronger than me- grabbed ahold of his arm. Big mistake. He lifted me in the air. It was just a sparring match so, where he would have delivered a fatal blow, he just dropped me on the ground.

"It was a rookie mistake." He said shrugging. "Let's try again."

He swung at me exactly like last time. I dodged it and tried to punch him in the chest. The blow connected, but it didn't look like it actually hurt him much. I went for a kick, but he turned his body and I missed. He swung at me again, this time hitting me square in the chin. I fell on the ground.

He laughed. "You did better that time. You still lost, but you did better."

I got up. As I dusted myself off, I noticed a young man running toward us.

"Jeez, Paul…where have you…been?" he asked, gasping for breath.

"I was just sparring with this kid." He pointed a finger in my direction. "Didn't know you were looking for me, Forrest."

Forrest ignored me and spoke to Paul hurriedly. "Paul…its Dad. He needs help. He's at the restaurant."

Paul immediately started running. Forrest and I followed. We arrived at a nice-looking Chinese Food place. The three of us ran in. I froze. Ogre's minions, the trolls, were wrecking the restaurant. There was a man, which I took to be Forrest's dad because of the similarity, standing over an unconscious one. He turned and began fighting another troll. Paul and Forrest immediately jumped into the fight. I couldn't stand the idea of what happened to my village happening to this huge city. I ran outside to get help, call the police, do anything but watch this city crumble. I tripped and looked back to see a troll's hand sticking out of the ground. It pulled the rest of itself up quickly. I ran at it. It sidestepped my punch and I fell on the ground. I saw more come up around me. They surrounded me and held me down to the ground. One of them lowered its hand down to my let shoulder…

Power ran through me. I could feel it rushing through my veins, body, and soul. It consumed me. I was vaguely aware of an orange film glazing over my eyes. With the power came confidence, I knew I could destroy them, and hate, hate at what they had done to my village. I ran at them- a green aura forming around me. My punch went straight through one of the troll's body. I kicked one in the head and heard the snap of neck vertebrae. One of the stupid ones came rushing at me. I ducked down and elbowed it in the stomach, practically cutting it in half. I looked around. There were no more enemies.

"Alright…fight, fight, fight." I heard a voice behind me say.

I turned. It was Zack. The young man that had turned into Ogre and killed his master. Without hesitation I ran at him. I uppercut-ed him in the chin, punched him in the stomach, kicked him in the face. After my barrage he stood- bruises covering his body and scars running down his face. Then, his eyes turned orange and his voice grew demonic.

"You're going to regret that." He said, still in his demonic voice.

In a flash of green lightning and a cloud of green smoke, a 7-foot tall monster stood before me. With the power I knew I had, I didn't even flinch. I rushed him. Punching him in the stomach and kicking at his face. My punch hit him in the gut, but he caught my kick and threw me straight into a building. I flew straight through three building until I made a complete stop. I was injured, but I made a show of looking unfazed. I dashed toward him and did an uppercut to his chin and then thrust my elbow into his stomach. Both hits connected and he stumbled onto the ground. As I rushed him again he got up and performed an uppercut to my chin. I fell on the ground. I could feel the power receding – the green aura around me disappearing. Ogre walked up to me. He picked me up by the neck.

I heard a vicious growl behind Ogre. I turned my head to see behind Ogre's shoulder. I was startled at the man behind Ogre. He was muscular, not grotesquely buff, but there was definitely muscle there. However, his most fearsome feature by far was that he had the head and tail of a jaguar.

The jaguar-man growled again. "Let go of the kid!" he roared.

Ogre smirked. He threw me to the ground at the jaguar-man's feet. I was too weak to move.

"You remind me of someone I've killed before." Ogre said.

Apparently, that was the last straw for the jaguar-man. He leaped at Ogre and brought both of his feet into Ogre's chest. Ogre stumbled back and tried to punch him. After that I felt a stab of pain in my left shoulder. I looked there and there was a thick green circle on my shoulder- like a tattoo, almost. Slowly, it faded away…and then I blacked out.

--

King

I went all out against Ogre. After Armor King told me that Ogre had killed my adoptive father I was bent on revenge. I actually felt guilty for my feelings of revenge, but they were there and I couldn't get rid of them. As I pushed my fist toward Ogre's face, but he caught it and pulled me toward his horrid face.

"I remember now." He said. "King…been revived have you?"

I roared ferociously. "You don't have the honor to say his name!"

I pulled my legs against my chest and pushed them into Ogre's chest. I escaped his grasp, but he recovered quickly.

"Ah…I see." He said tauntingly. "You're just one of his weakling students looking for revenge."

I ran toward him and punched towards his stomach. He blocked it with his forearm and hit me in the face with his elbow. I fell on the ground. I was about to get back up when he stomped on my back. I was prepared to roll out of the way. As I began my roll his foot came crashing down on my head.