Demonic Forces Arc

Chapter 9: Red Dragon Knight

Red Dragon Knight stood in front of several graves.

"This here is where my old team currently lies," Red Dragon Knight said.

"You were part of another team?" Gwilln asked.

"Yeah. But my team however was given fake orders to investigate an attack that never happened. We were lead into a trap."

"Why?"

"I don't know. You know my armor wasn't always red. In fact, it was originally white. Let me tell you what happened."

The scene shifts to a past Ranger City. Red Dragon Knight's armor is white. He is called the White Dragon Knight. They were team Snakebite. The members were:

White Dragon Knight (Ryu Kazaki): Human male

Yava Miriam: Sky Elven female

The Black Knight (Morveth Hallgen): Deep-Earth Elven Male

Loric Gevry: Human male. Team leader

Jassa Newbrick: Dwarven female

The five of them were a great team. White Dragon Knight and the Black Knight returned to Ranger City after a small scouting mission.

"Ryu!" Yava said as she ran up, hugged him and they kissed lips.

"Hey Yava" White Dragon Knight said and smiled.

"Glad to see you two are back. What did you discover?" asked Loric.

"Demons are doing what they normally do, wandering around looking for things to kill. No signs of a planned attack on Ranger City," said Black Knight.

"Let the bastards come! I'll take em' all on!" said Jassa.

"Calm down, we'll be heading back out into the field soon," said Loric.

After a while, the team had a little party. Loric curled a finger to White Dragon Knight.

"Yes Loric?" asked White Dragon Knight.

"Just thought I'd talk to you about what you and Yava might do," Loric said.

"Why?"

"I'm just curious is all."

"Well, I do plan on having a serious relationship with her.."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I love her so much."

Loric put a hand on his shoulder and nodded.

"Good luck to you then. I hope you go through with it," he said and smiled.

The next day, the team was given orders from the head of Ranger City at the time.

"It seems we have been asked to investigate a missing Ranger Team over in the Flamelands," said Loric.

"Why us?" asked Black Knight.

"I don't know. He says he needs a Ranger team capable of going through the Flamelands. And that's us."

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go," said White Dragon Knight

"I agree," said Jassa.

White Dragon Knight looked at Yava. Her long white hair, her pointed ears, her piercing red eyes, and her almost purely white skin. He loved everything about her. She looked over at him and smiled. He smiled back.

After the team armored up, they set out into the hellish landscape and made their way to the Flamelands. The team had found the location of where the Ranger team was supposedly attack. There were no signs of battle. Something didn't feel right.

"Somethings off. Keep your guard up everyone!" said Loric.

Everyone had their weapons ready. Suddenly, they were ambushed by several Demons. They fought off the monsters with ease. Simple Demons were no problem for them till suddenly, more powerful Demon units showed up. They fought them off as best they could. They slaughtered the Demons.

"Seems we beat them all," said White Dragon Knight.

"Don't lower your guard!" yelled Loric.

Yava's ears twitched.

"There's something else on the way!" she called.

The team looked up and were shocked to see a winged Demon fly over their heads. This Demon was not like the rest. In fact, it was on a completely different scale than the rest. The Demon landed on the ground. The team stared at the massive Demon. Its skin was green, had massive devil wings, horns, and four eyes. The team readied their weapons. The Demon laughed.

"You little mortals think you can beat me? Ha!" said the Demon.

Loric, Black Knight, and White Dragon Knight did a three pronged attack on the Demon. They slashed at his legs. Yava fired spells that hit the monster and Jassa leapt into the air and brought her axe down on the Demon's chest. The Demon laughed despite the injuries. The Demon swatted White Dragon Knight to the side.

"Ryu!" called Loric.

The Demon looked down at Loric. The Demon grabbed Loric by the neck.

"Let me go!"

The Demon laughed at his please and slammed him hard into the ground. Loric's body twitched. The Demon then stomped on Loric's chest crushing his ribs and lungs. Loric made huffing noises and then fell silent. He was dead.

"Loric!" called Black Knight, "You bastard!"

Black Knight and Jassa attacked on opposite sides of the Demon while Yava contined fire spells. As Black Knight and Jassa brought down their weapons on the monster, the Demon grabbed both of their weapons by the blade and broke them. The Demon looked at Black Knight, smirked, and brought a heavy fist onto his head, shattering his helmet, and shattering his skull. The fragments of his skull entered deep in his brain, killing him. Black Knight fell over dead. Jassa threw a punch at the monster while Yava ran over to White Dragon Knight.

"Get up Ryu!" she said as she shook him.

The Demon grabbed Jassa's fist and then broke her arm. He then grabbed her by the neck and snapped it. The Demon looked over at Yava. The Demon smirked, Yava fired all the spells she could think of at the Demon. The Demon simply just ignored the spells. White Dragon Knight regained consciousness and looked up to see Yava being held by the neck. The Demon then used his other hand to take out a large part of her lower abdomen. The Demon then dropped her body in front of White Dragon Knight. When he fully regained focus, he held Yava in his arms.

"Yava…. YAVA!" he screamed.

The Demon sported his wings.

"You shall be the one to tell of what's happened here. Consider it a message to your city. You're the lucky one," said the Demon.

The Demon then sprouted his wings and flew off.

Yava coughed up blood.

"Yava. Oh thank the gods yo-," he was cut off by her finger hushing him.

"Ryu…don't ever forget us. This s where we part Ryu. I love you."

She then died in his arms. White Dragon Knight gently lay her body down. His gauntlets red with her blood. He stood up and screamed up at the sky.

Later, White Dragon Knight returned to Ranger City carrying the corpses of his team. With his free hand he reached into Loric's pocket and grabbed the orders from the city. He looked and saw it was signed by the head of Ranger City; Baron Locust Hember. He went into the city center where Locust was conveniently giving a speech about how great of a leader is and how much he loves the Rangers and the city. White Dragon Knight's armor was slowly turning red from the blood of his dead comrades. He walked through the crowd of people still carrying their corpses. Locust looked at him.

"You bastard," said White Dragon Knight.

"I beg your pardon," said Locust.

White Dragon Knight looked right into the Deep-Earth Elf's eyes.

"There were no missing Rangers were there."

"Excuse me? Speak up."

"I said, THERE WERE NO MISSING FUCKING RANGERS WERE THERE?! You purposely sent us on a suicide mission and we didn't even fucking know. But you knew you sick fuck. You purposefully had us killed so we would become a challenge to you."

White Dragon Knights armor turned more red.

"Your corruption had us killed!"

"I am not corrupt! You knew we'd be fucking slaughtered you bastard! Don't fucking be coy with me! I literally carried the bodies of my fallen comrades from the Flamelands to here. You could at least show some respect for their deaths."

"I respect every Ranger's life."

White Dragon Knight set the corpses of his dead friends down.

"If you had so much fucking respect for us, you wouldn't have had us killed! I should fucking kill you for what you did!"

White Dragon Knight ran up to Locust with his sword drawn and put it to his neck. But then he took a deep breath, put his weapon away, and tended to his dead comrades.

"For that attempt on my life, I hereby have you exiled!"

White Dragon Knight smirked.

"Good. I like it when people fuck off anyways."

Before he left the city, he buried his comrades in the cemetery. He placed their respective weapons on their graves. He stood in front of Yava's grave. He fell to his knees and for the first time in his life, he cried.

The gates of Ranger City opened and he left the city with nothing but his armor and weapon. The blood of his dead comrades would not wash off of his armor and weapon. When he went out into the Hellands, he saw a Demon. Suddenly, he grew angry. He ran over to the Demon and slaughtered it without mercy. He saw another Demon and cut its head clean off and laughed at its demise.

Despite being exiled from the city, he returned three days later. He was no longer the White Dragon Knight. He was now the Red Dragon Knight. He was allowed back into the city due to Locust's corruption being true and thus he was removed from power. Red Dragon Knight was contacted by a newly formed Ranger team called Demon's Bane. He met with their leader.

"So you're the famous Red Dragon Knight," Reyla said.

"Yeah. So what?" he responded.

"My team could use someone with your skill set. I also read about what happened to your old team."

"I can take care of myself. I don't need a team anymore."

"But I'd like to bring you into a team."

"Why?"

"I'd like you reintroduce you to comradery."

Red Dragon Knight thought for a moment. Would his team want him to be this way? Would they want him to live out his days with remorse and hate in his heart? No, they wouldn't want that.

"I'll join you."

Reyla smiled and took his hand.

"Welcome to Demon's Bane."