Hellooooooo everyone! I'm so happy that I've been given such positive reviews. Anyway I've decided what Zola shall be in the second story arc so look forward to that after this one is finished. Also, for some strange reason, I feel a strong urge to go back to previous chapters and make Rikaru blond with short hair. I don't know why though and it's seriously bothering me. I'll let you read chapter five while I think on it for a bit. *sits down and randomly sips some tea.*
"Can we train now Rikaru?" Shu asked and Rikaru looked at him. They were stopping to spend the night at a village and everyone was currently in separate rooms. The boys were in one room while the girls were in another. Rikaru was reading a book when Shu walked over to him and asked the question.
"Me too maro." Marumaro said and Rikaru chuckled.
"I don't mind but it'll have to be one-on-one so we can work on your strengths and weaknesses." Rikaru said closing his book. "Shu will go first, then Marumaro, and then Jiro."
"Yeah I'm first!" Shu shouted.
"Why am I last?" Jiro asked and Rikaru grinned.
"Because I can tell you don't need that much help." Jiro smirked and Shu looked shocked. Rikaru stood up and walked to the door. "Let's go Shu."
"Coming." Shu said and he followed Rikaru outside. Once they were outside and away from the villagers and buildings, they summoned their shadows.
"Alright Shu, from the fights that I've witnessed Blue Dragon participate in, he has high strength and a bit above moderate stamina but he needs to work on his speed and dexterity."
"Right." Shu said.
"What Blue Dragon should do is use his wings to his advantage." Blue Dragon looked at Rikaru.
"You mean for dodging and landing attacks right?" Blue Dragon said and Rikaru nodded.
"Correct. You can use your wings to help you maneuver out the way of an enemy's attacks and position them to raise your speed." Blue Dragon nodded and Rikaru noticed that his wings were open a little. "The way your wings are positioned right now will only slow you down when you try to attack an enemy so try to close them a bit more."
"Okay." Blue Dragon closed his wings a little more.
"Now, come at my shadow with an attack." Rikaru said and Winter Wolf braced himself.
"Here goes! Crushing Nail!" Shu shouted and Blue Dragon's hands turned into glowing blue blades. He rushed at Winter Wolf and Blue Dragon was now moving a bit faster than before. Winter Wolf managed to dodge the attack and Rikaru nodded in approval. "Whoa!"
"If Blue Dragon's wings were open like they usually were then the air would've slowed him down and give his enemy a chance to try and counterattack."
"That was great." Blue Dragon said. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind."
"Your wings are much more useful than you realize. You can also use them to boost your speed when you're dodging attacks. Winter Wolf will attack you now so I want you to open your wings and use them to help you dodge." Blue Dragon nodded and opened his wings. "Frozen Fist!"
"Sir yes sir." Winter Wolf said and his right fist was now covered in a block of ice. He reduced his speed before racing towards Blue Dragon.
"Concentrate Blue Dragon and try to time it just right." Rikaru said and Blue Dragon narrowed his eyes. He suddenly spread his wings out and flew out the way of Winter Wolf's attack. "Excellent work."
"Nice one Blue Dragon." Shu said and Blue Dragon smirked.
"You can also use your wings to help you counterattack." Rikaru said and Blue Dragon looked at him.
"How do I do that?" Blue Dragon asked.
"Every attack leaves some type of opening. All you have to do is quickly find it and exploit it." Winter Wolf returned to Rikaru's side. "This also has to do with your sense of timing Shu. Once you've found an opening, Blue Dragon should use his wings to boost his speed and attack. Whether you want to use a special or physical attack is up to you."
"Right." Shu said and Blue Dragon nodded.
"Sometimes the weak spot is the time it takes to charge the attack or the recharge time." Shu looked a bit confused and Rikaru cleared his throat. "I'll give you an example, Winter Wolf's Arctic Breath attack takes a minute and a half to charge. He also has an attack that's very powerful but we only use it as a last resort."
"Why?"
"Because it's so strong that it drains a lot of power from Winter Wolf and leaves him vulnerable to attacks afterward. He won't be able to do anything at all so he basically becomes a sitting duck."
"That's not good." Rikaru sighed and nodded.
"That's the price of having so much power." Blue Dragon remained silent as he thought about it.
"Can't your shadow recover?" Shu asked and Rikaru shook his head.
"Yeah but it'll take a while. About a half an hour to be specific." Rikaru looked at Blue Dragon then back at Shu. "Anyway, it's time to put the things you and Blue Dragon have learned so far together in a practice battle. Are you ready?"
"Ready." Blue Dragon and Winter Wolf were now in a fighting stance and raced towards each other.
Meanwhile...
"Are you sure we should do this Captain?" a man asked. He was wearing sandy brown cargo pants and his feet were wrapped in light brown bandage wraps. He had forest green eyes and short dark brown hair. "We're doing this too far into the Mainland."
"Quite complaining Sampson." the Captain said. He was also wearing sandy brown cargo pants but his feet were wrapped in white bandage wraps. He had dark brown eyes and short light gray hair with a short beard. "It's because of our situation that we're doing this. Do you wish for us to starve to death?"
"No Captain Krews but-" Sampson was cut off when Krews grabbed him by his throat.
"We must do this! The strong take what they want and the weak get wiped out! That is our law and we follow it accordingly!" Krews shouted and he dropped Sampson on the ground. "Besides, these villagers are weak little humans. We are werewolves and I refuse to have our kind hide from those weaker than us! Do you understand?"
"Y-Yes sir." Sampson said and six more male werewolves in human form joined them. They were wearing the same color cargo pants and they all had the same color bandage wraps as Sampson.
"Now, let's grab some supplies and...feed." Krews said while his fangs started growing and his eyes started changing into wolf ones.
Back with the others...
"You've done well and you've gotten stronger Shu. I'm proud of you." Rikaru said after their shadows disappeared and Shu ran over to him.
"Really?" Shu asked with an excited smile and his eyes were sparkling with admiration. Rikaru looked at him and he was surprised to see young boy like this. A small feeling appeared within his instincts and it caught him off guard. It was like a fatherly instinct and Rikaru felt uncomfortable feeling this way for a human child. He took off his hood and ran a hand through his hair. He hoped that this mission would end soon or he'll end up actually being on their side and betraying Nene. Rikaru looked at Shu and smiled. He ruffled Shu's short spiky hair and Shu puffed his chest out with pride. Rikaru's werewolf ears appeared and he immediately froze. He turned to the direction where the sound was coming from and he removed his hand from Shu's head. "What is it Rikaru?"
"The village..." Rikaru trailed off and he sniffed the air. He smelled the scent of blood and growled. "It's being attacked by werewolves."
"What!" Shu shouted and Rikaru ran off. "Wait for me!"
In the Village...
"Werewolves!" a man shouted as he ran away only to be caught and savagely devoured by a brown werewolf. More were running through the village stealing some supplies and devouring humans. They were using their strong claws to run on all fours on the walls of several buildings after their prey and one of them howled.
"I'm guessing these are werewolves maro." Marumaro said hiding behind Zola. Jiro and Zola had their swords drawn while the others hid behind them. Rikaru raced over to them with Shu following.
"Oh man." Shu said in shock and two of the brown werewolves turned their attention to them.
"They've noticed us." Bouquet said while trembling in fear behind Zola. The two brown werewolves raced towards them on all fours with their fangs bared and Zola stood ready. Then Rikaru raced towards them and swiftly punched one of them in the stomach. It was knocked back a couple of feet and Rikaru did the same to the other one.
"I see more of them." Kluke said and Rikaru turned to see the six more werewolves joining them. One of them was a dark brown werewolf and looked stronger than the others.
"I guess it's safe to assume that the dark brown one is the leader." Jiro said and Rikaru growled in annoyance.
"All of you just need to stay back. Use your shadows if they make it past me." Rikaru said.
"There are eight of them and you're the only werewolf on our side. There's nothing iffy about this situation." Zola said and Rikaru looked at her.
"Oh ye of little faith." Rikaru said playfully and Zola chuckled. "Well it looks like you all will be able to see my werewolf form after all."
"Wait, don't tell us you're going to strip in front of us." Jiro said and Rikaru looked at him like he was crazy.
"Of course not Jiro." Rikaru gestured one of his hands to the girls. "There are ladies present."
"So that means..." Shu trailed off and Rikaru sighed.
"Yes, it's unfortunate but I don't really have a choice and I really like this outfit too." Rikaru said and he tossed his swords to Zola and Jiro. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. When he opened them, they were now wolf eyes and he started transforming. His body grew taller and his muscle mass also grew. Black fur started growing and his clothes started ripping off. His feet turned into wolf like paws and a thick black tail grew. His arms grew longer until his fingers reached his knees and his claws turned into animal ones while his hands remained human like. His head morphed into that of a wolf and his eyes were glowing a bright gold. Zola and her group watched in shock as Rikaru finished transforming and he roared at the group of enemy werewolves. The leader of the group roared back at him and its fur bristled. Rikaru got down on all fours and raced towards them with his large fangs bared. The group of werewolves, except the leader, did the same and a vicious fight ensued. Scratches and bites were exchanged back and forth so fast that the others were unable to follow most of it. Rikaru scratched a brown werewolf's left eye out and it roared in pain. The black werewolf backhanded another brown werewolf into a building and he proceeded to bury his fangs in another one's right shoulder.
"This is horrible." Bouquet asked.
"This is how they fight. All we can do is stay back and hope Rikaru can hold them all back." Zola said and she saw a brown werewolf run past Rikaru towards them.
"Maro!" Marumaro shouted and Zola put Rikaru's sword down.
"What are you doing Zola?" Shu asked and Zola readied her sword.
'I really do hope this sword is made out of silver for this crazy thing I'm about to do.' Zola thought and the brown werewolf leaped towards them. Bouquet screamed and Zola ducked under it. She stabbed her sword into the brown werewolf's chest and it yelped in pain. A sizzling sound was heard before Zola removed her sword and the brown werewolf fell to the ground. It whimpered in pain as the wound continued to burn and Zola looked at her sword.
"So it's made of silver after all." Kluke said.
"I guess so." Zola said and she saw the brown werewolf get up. She ran towards it and stabbed it again through its heart. It roared before dropping to the ground dead and Zola sheathed her sword. "I'll clean my sword off later."
"That was amazing Zola!" Shu shouted and Zola smiled. They turned their attention back to Rikaru's battle and saw that it was now just Rikaru and the leader left. Rikaru had a couple deep scratch marks on his chest and a wound on his left shoulder that looked like one of the brown werewolves bit it. The two were exchanging growls, snarls and roars which Zola and the others thought was just them talking in their native language.
"What are they saying?" Bouquet asked and Jiro looked at her.
"How should we know? I'm pretty sure none of us can speak werewolf." Jiro said as the two werewolves started fighting.
"But I can." a female voice said and the others turned to see a girl sitting on the roof of a building next to them. She had silver colored eyes with long blonde hair tied up in a ponytail. She wore a red sleeveless shirt with blue jean shorts and black shoes. Zola pointed her sword at her and the girl held her hands up in surrender. "Whoa there. I'm not here to eat you or anything."
"Then why are you here?" Zola asked.
"My village heard about the attack the werewolf marauders were planning in the Mainland so my king sent us to stop them but it looks like my brother is already handling it." the girl said and the others looked surprised.
"Your brother?" Marumaro asked and the girl nodded.
"Wait, what do you mean 'us'?" Shu asked. Then a man with dark gray hair and bright blue eyes appeared beside the girl. He was also wearing blue jean shorts but had on a forest green sleeveless shirt and blue shoes.
"Rikaru is her brother and it appears that he's busy right now." the man said in a british accent and he looked at the blonde girl next to him. "By the way, did you even bother to introduce yourself young lady?"
"Fine." the girl said annoyed and they jumped down from the roof. "My name is Kristina and this guy is Randolph."
"Tis a pleasure to meet you." Randolph said bowing and Zola lowered her sword.
"I take it you two are from the same village that Rikaru is." Zola said and the two nodded.
"There aren't just werewolves like us that live there. Several humans live peacefully alongside us." Kristina said and she looked over at the two werewolves that were fighting. "I should help my brother."
"No need. Rikaru is more than capable of handling it himself." Randolph said.
"Rikaru's your brother?" Shu asked and Kristina nodded.
"You two look nothing alike." Jiro said.
"Yeah we get that a lot." Rikaru walked over to them on two legs instead of four and looked at Kristina. He barked at her and Kristina looked at him.
"I was ordered to come here and help but obviously I didn't have to." Kristina said and Rikaru snorted.
"Rikaru can't talk?" Bouquet asked and Randolph looked at her.
"When we transform into our werewolf forms, we can only speak our native language. So to your group, he loses the ability to talk to you in your language but he can still understand what you're saying." Randolph said.
"Hey Randolph, can you find bro some new clothes?" Kristina asked and Randolph nodded. Shu walked over to Rikaru and looked up at him. The black werewolf towered above him and Shu looked at him in awe.
"Cool!" Shu shouted and Rikaru gently ruffled his hair.
"Well since Randolph and I didn't need to come here we'll be heading our way back to Desert-Moon Village." Kristina said folding her arms and Rikaru nudged her with his snout. Kristina almost fell over and she glared at him.
"What?" Kristina asked annoyed and Rikaru made a couple growls at her. Kristina thought for a minute and nodded.
"Yeah I'll go investigate."
"What did he say?" Marumaro asked and Kristina looked at him.
"He wants me to investigate why the marauders ventured this far in the Mainland just for supplies and..'food'." Kristina said. "There are plenty of villages closer that they could've attacked but they didn't."
"Yes it is strange." Zola said and Randolph returned with some new clothes for Rikaru.
"Well we hope to cross paths with you again. We must return to his majesty to report our findings." Randolph said and Kristina nodded.
"See you later bro." Kristina said before she followed Randolph outside the village.
"Things are starting to get unusual around here and something tells me that Nene isn't the one behind this." Zola said.
I bet you thought Kristina would join their group right? No? Meh, whatever. Anyway, Read and Review!