Mad Max: Road to Salvation

Episode 3: Feral fury

SilentType 1997: Thanks for the suggestion, and I'm setting the beginning of this 2 years before the events of volume 1.

Mad Max Fan: you guessed it.

blessingpilot4: glad you are.

the swordswoman charged at him attempting to slice him in half, Max countered with his machete and forced her back. He rolled out of the way another slice and brought his shotguns to bear. He got inside her guard and fired all four barrels, the sheer force knocked her into a crumbling brick wall. She rose again and max was in the middle of reloading his guns. Thinking quickly, max holstered his classic sawed-off and blocked using his lead pipe double barrel.

Max knew she had to have a weakness, and he was going to keep hammering away until he found it. the woman seemed to be growing annoyed from how tough this man was proving to be. He had proved himself formidable, and not afraid to fight dirty to survive, just like herself. Max gritted his teeth and pressed his hardest to keep the struggle from ending in his opponent's favor. The two of them pushed back and forth, with neither side gaining ground. Soon enough the woman broke off and tried to attack him from below. Max reacted and dropped to the ground, he then swiftly fired one of his shotguns and dizzied the woman. He got up and smacked her upside the head with a vicious uppercut. The woman recovered and slashed at him with her sword again, he blocked and retaliated with his own machete. He heard woman as he landed a slash on her arm. Max saw a slight glow from where he cut her, and was both angered and confused at how she seemed to not have taken any damage.

Max was not going to let this woman beat him, he'd come too far to lose. He'd braved the fiercest storms, and the mightiest foes. Nothing will stop him, including this woman. The two fighters circled each other with a heavy scent of oil, fire, and blood in the air. The woman seemed to look straight into Max's eyes, he did the same as they circled the ground. Both of them were masters of combat, Max had face an army of war boys, marauders and warlords. These bandit pukes were mediocre, about as dangerous as lowly war pups or simple roadkill, nothing like the war boy armies of Immortan Joe's gang. Raven Branwen, the fiercest bandit leader in remnant's recent history had slain every soldier and huntsman who'd come after her and her people.

This one feral man was proving to be far stronger, and fiercer than any opponent she'd faced before. Max rammed his fists together and charged her, she retaliated with a downward slash. Max drew his pipe shotgun and used it as a club, slamming it into her side as he passed her by. She spun her slash this time in an effort to cut him down again. He was proving to even better or just as good as her brother. But Qrow hadn't exactly proven to be a ruthless and brutal fighter like this man. Max rolled backwards as he reloaded his shotguns again for another four-barrel blast. Raven was actually trying to slay him as he evaded her constantly, doing her damnedest to keep him from reloading.

Raven kept at it, but Max had apparently figured out that her teleporting was useless at this close range. It was almost as if the man was predicting her moves, she had to end this fight. She knew the man had his guns reloaded and he was very cautious with his expenditure of ammunition. She knew enough to avoid another four-barrel blast, otherwise her aura would go down even further. Max drew his machete and signaled for Raven to come at him. Raven then had an idea and slashed at the ground to create a cover of dust so as to sneak attack the man.

She did so and Max had to rely on his other instincts for this battle since his sight was now compromised. This was a novice strategy, one that he was also familiar with. He drew his shotguns and waited for her to attack. Just as raven appeared behind him, he rolled forward and fired his shotguns as he stood up. This knocked her back against Max's trusted black car, He sprinted towards her, and tossed away her sword while she was down. He then started to brutally lay into her with his knuckle dusters. Each punch was harder than the last, driving down her aura even further. Raven could feel it, she could feel the pain and weakness creeping upon her, she hated it.

His rapid strikes were having the intended result as he continuously slammed his fists into the woman's face and body. He then pulled her off of the car, and threw her to the ground, slamming his foot down on her back. Max heard a crack and a loud grunt of pain come from the woman. Raven was mad now, she had been disarmed and it was her priority to get her weapon back before this man could continue to beat down on her. She used her hands to throw dust into the Max's face and he was blinded by the clump of dirt. Raven reached for her sword and rolled away from the recovering Max. She stood up and menacingly pointed her blade at the man. Max had recovered and furrowed his brow at her, showing the sheer level of absolute seriousness, he bore on his rough face.

Max saw an old pipe on the ground, and grabbed for it as he barely dodged the swift strike from the woman. He held the pipe in his hand as well as his machete in the other. Raven swung at him again, only to have her sword caught between the two melee weapons her opponent bore. Raven gritted her teeth at his tenacity and penchant for violence. Max could see the woman was getting her cage rattled by his refusal to die like all the others she had probably cut down. His face though bore no purchase for raven to analyze, simply remaining serious and unintimidated. He had no fear, or if he did it was clear she was not the object of it. A saying she'd heard once rang in her mind, the only thing more dangerous than one who is desperate, or fearless, is one who has gone mad with nothing left to lose but his own life.

The townsfolk were cheering on their leather armor clad savior from the town hall as they had driven off the other bandits. With each passing moment their praise of the mysterious man grew ever so louder. It was clear to them that a champion had come, some tried to figure out if he was a huntsman but the mayor had managed to confirm that none were nearby, or too busy to hunt down the bandits and their leader. Whoever he was, the people of Riverdale junction were grateful he had come to their aid. The dog howled proudly for its master to continue fighting his opponent. The teenage survivors were even capturing footage of his epically brutal battle against Raven on their scrolls. Some were even equating it to a war rather than a fight. The elders of the village could see it from how he stood, an experienced master of combat.

Raven was getting irritated by the chants and cries of praise for this man that came from the townsfolk. Max blocked it all out, and solely focused on his fight against this bandit woman. As long as she was a threat that was all that mattered. His crafty dog Dinki-di, cooked up an idea in its head, and stealthily made its way closer to the woman. Max ran at the woman again and clashed blades with her. He quickly took his second hand off of the blade and rammed it into the woman's solar plexus. Raven kneeled to breathe as Max door kicked her face, throwing her for a few feet. Raven picked herself up as Max charged in was about to get a lucky strike on him until the dog followed through with its idea.

Dinki-di ran at the woman from behind and bit her leg as she was about to swing the sword. She tried to strike at the brave dog who just barely dodged her sword strike. Max got the distraction he needed and punched the woman in helmet's face plate at full force with his heaviest of haymakers. This knocked her helmet clear off of her head as she flew three feet away from Max. She was stunned on the ground in a daze. Max grabbed her sword, reloaded his standard sawed-off, and brought it to her face as he stomped his foot on her chest. She looked him straight in the eyes from her position on the ground, she Raven Branwen was defeated by man whom was an even stronger survivor than her. It just didn't make sense to her, not one bit. Max stared right back into her crimson eyes with own blue ones and a stoic expression on his hardened face.

For a very tense moment Max simply kept his shotgun trained on the woman's head. He contemplated what to do, normally the decision would be clear but in a strange way, she reminded him of Furiosa. Glory's ghost revealed itself again and forced him to stay his hand from the trigger. He heard hope's voice call to him and he lowered the gun. Max's vision ended and he decided to speak to her.

"If you move, I'll kill you." Max spoke to the woman lying under his boot.

"I want my sword back." She spoke venomously.

"No." Max coldly replied

"It's mine, I will have it back." She hissed.

"No." Max repeated himself.

"I will find you for this, and I will take back what is mine." Raven said with anger.

"You won't, I'll be long gone. The blade will be useful, and without it you pose no threat to me." Max stoically replied.

"Far stronger than you have faced me, yet I lost to you, a weakling. You let me live, yet I'm not weak, only the strong survive." Raven growled.

"I don't care, I have better things to do then waste my time, or the ammunition. I survive because I'm strong, you're weak because you slaughter." Max said bluntly.

"Don't talk down to me." Raven retorted.

"I simply don't care. If you follow me, I will kill you. If you think strength is all that matters… then that's why you lost." Max said as he slammed his shotgun against her head, knocking her out. Just like that, everything had gone black for Raven as she quickly faded into unconsciousness. The townsfolk cheered at their new hero as he walked back to his car, his dog quickly ran to his side. The people then crowded around his vehicle as he honked the horn for them to move. The mayor and the sheriff of the town, along with the remaining deputies approached the car and moved the people back as the mayor went to speak with the mysterious man.

"Sir, wait. You have saved my people, please stay you deserve a reward. It is the least we can do for you saving our village, especially from her. No huntsman has ever stopped Raven Branwen and her bandits before." The mayor said calmly in a tired voice.

"I'm no hero, but I need fuel, and ammo." Max listed his necessities.

"Of course, you have earned it. Do you need food as well?" The mayor offered.

"Sure, we have a deal." Max said as he left the car. He ordered Dinki-di to stay and guard the vehicle. The dog dutifully sat in the passenger seat and barked gleefully at its master's orders. Max followed the mayor to the town's armory and received his supplies. Several children approached the vehicle and were met with growls of warning from the wasteland war dog. One little girl was not discouraged and closed her eyes as she stuck her hand out towards the angry looking dog. Dinki-di was still snarling but then he saw the little girl close her eyes and stick her hand out. He stopped growling and tilted his head curiously at the little girl's gesture. On instinct he stuck his head onto her palm and nuzzled her soft small hand.

The little girl felt something fuzzy under her fingers and looked to see the dog not biting her, and in fact tolerating her presence. She opened her eyes and giggled happily as she scratched the rough and tumble pooch. Dinki-di looked at her and licked her hand playfully. The little girl smiled and scratched the dog behind his ears, making him pant happily. Other kids started to come closer, but the dog quickly began growling again. The little girl still wasn't afraid, and knew that the dog had at least accepted her presence, but that was it. No one else strayed towards the vehicle for fear of the vicious guard dog, and out of despise for the little orphan faunas. It turned out the little girl had a pair of dog ears on her head like Dinki-di's. The dog sat there as the little girl played with him and scratched his neck beneath a collar that Max had found for him in their travels together.

Meanwhile, as the remaining officers tried to restrain the unconscious raven, she started to stir and began thrashing against her captors. Raven knocked out one of them and took off running into the forest, and used her portal ability to escape. She had warped a short distance away to save her remaining strength to track down the man who'd bested her in their battle. She fumed to herself at just how it had been possible, he was deceptively strong for being just some guy with apparently no unlocked aura, or simply very little at all. For a brief moment though, she did think of how he was somewhat ruggedly handsome and perhaps worthy of joining her tribe. She quickly shunted that thought away and questioned what had brought it about but still it persisted. Raven then made her way back to the outskirts of the town to wait. She'd eventually retrieve her weapon from the man who butchered her fellow bandits, and kicked her ass.

Max walked back to the car with a decent sized crate of supplies that the townsfolk could offer, along with a large canister to pump fuel into the tanks. Max received a map to go with it, he made sure not disclose anything that would give away his origins. The Road warrior set his supplies down, and briefly spoke to the sheriff and mayor on directions. The little girl noticed the man retuning but did not want to leave the dog's company or get in trouble. So, she hopped into the car and hid behind the seats waiting for max to load his supplies. He did so and readied himself to start exploring this strange new world. He hopped into the driver's seat and started the engine. The big chief V8 roared with life, and seemed to actually run better from the new liquid fire dust fuel that had been dumped into the tanks and mixed with the remaining petrol. Max put the interceptor in gear and took off down the road, with a little stowaway on board.

-END CHAPTER-