Slamming his hammer into the chest of another soldier, the giant cringed with knowing that he had taken yet another life.

But these soldiers had left him no other choice.

Behind him was a scattered caravan of civilians fleeing war and destruction in the North. Though they held the giant in fear and suspicion, the warrior joined their small band of armed fighters comprised of hired mercenaries and deserters whom wanted nothing more to do with the war in the north. The dark soldiers caught up to the caravan and slaughtered all that they could come upon. The giant and the fighters had managed to fend off the first platoon, but many of the fighters were now dead, dying or wounded.

And another platoon had just arrived.

Readying a hammer of steel in one hand and a hammer of copper plated iron in the other, the giant prepared to defend these civilians to his last breath.

"It's too much Bangoo..." The leader of the band, an elderly warrior with a mace and a short sword, "You've done what you can...God will not hold you a coward for preserving your life."

"Perhaps not...but I will not leave you die...that is my freedom to choose..."

"Bless you child..." The old man stated as he suddenly fell dead from an arrow through his chest. Now the youth was truly alone while the platoon arrived with heavy armor and long spears and shields. The platoon's captain held up a hand while he looked upon the massive warrior that stood before his platoon. But whatever fear or curiosity that the captain felt gave way to obediance and to the darkness that Bangoo felt from these soldiers. As though they were vanguard of a coming darkness, they charged...

Then it appeared.

A great wolf of Twilight leapt upon one of the soldiers and mauled into it's neck as a blur of orange and red jumped into the vanguard. Next to the wolf stood a youth with spiky red hair and a red staff that he used to bash five soldiers before he stood upon it and ate an apple. Seeing an opportunity, Bangoo charged another line of soldiers and swiped away one side of their line while the wolf and the staff youth swept away the other.

Though initially surprised, the captain ordered his men to circle around the four adversaries. Unaware of the red death that waited in the trees and leapt upon his horse right behind him. A dagger was stabbed and then pulled into the captain's spine as he fell to the ground instantly dead. The red-clad ninja danced upon the points of the soldier's lances and disappeared into the trees and three several kunai that felled three soldiers.

Now leaderless, the soldiers in their black armor were further surprised when their western formation was broken by two blond women. One defended while the other attacked, both were quick and both were graceful, both were beautiful and both were deadly. Their armor left them with little speed or manueverability and left them as easy prey to the petite blades of these women.

On their eastern front, more soldiers were stabbed or beaten down by a girl with a narrow blade. Her swordplay seemed more like a graceful dance and had already cut down many soldiers while they were unable to even hit her. She was soon joined two foes that the soldiers quickly recognized. One was an Eastern Man with a white open vest and the other was a conjurer with a black open vest and a great wolf spirit that appeared due to his witchcraft.

It was time to retreat.

One more soldier was knocked into the air by the staff wielder while the remaining soldiers dropped their weapons and fled for their lives. Upon that road, one platoon of 120 had been killed to the last man while the second had suffered 89 deaths including their captain with 20 having to carry 13 wounded.

xxxxxxxxx

"That was fun...let's do it again!"

"I'd...rather not..." Pyrrha timidly replied, her hands still shaking from the skirmish that had concluded mere minutes ago, "It...it still feels...the same..."

"What does?"

"Killing...I enjoyed it..." Pyrrha answered the surprised Cassandra, "I shouldn't though...killing is wrong..."

"Murder is wrong. You have a right to protect the life of others and of yourself." Cassandra consoled her niece, "It's never easy though...it would be more boring, but the world would be a better place if we didn't have to fight."

"You're right..."

"Of course I am!" Cassandra lightly laughed with her niece, "I'm going to wash off my face right quick...and clean the stains off this sword...want me to take yours too?"

"Um...okay..." Pyrrha agreed, handing over the Valkyrie Sword that her aunt had lended her, "It's you'rs anyway..."

"I had a spare and you needed one." Cassandra said before she went over to a small pond nearby.

"Thank you..." Pyrrha said to herself before she saw a large man covered in sweat approach her, "Rock?"

"Rock?" The man asked, "That was the name of my father...you knew him?"

"No...my aunt did," Pyrrha replied to the giant as the last of caravan's dead were accounted for, "They traveled together to Ostrheinsburg Castle long ago...she thought that you might've been your father..."

"What is your name girl?"

"It is Pyrrha..." Pyrrha replied after bowing, "Were you part of the Caravan?"

"In a sense...I am Bangoo." The giant replied, "How could your aunt know of my father?"

"Well...my aunt says that Rock was a big man who used a large hammer and wore animal skins upon his body..." Pyrrha answered while blushing at Bangoo's muscular gigantic form, "So...you wear the coat and head of a lion on your waistcoat and use hammers...so...I mistook you for your guide..."

"Why do you look away in shame?" Bangoo asked while a flustered Pyrrha stood in place, "Did I...commit an offense?"

"She's like that with everyone..." ZWEI explained while patting Pyrrha on the shoulder and making her jump, "It doesn't look like you really needed our help."

"I didn't...they did." Bangoo pointed out the regathering caravan, "I do not understand their language, but I found them under attack by warriors with a fell scent and chose to defend them. I was uncertain...but the presence of the Twilight Wolf assures me of my path."

"The Twilight Wolf?" ZWEI asked before he looked over to where the wolf was gently nudging a young puppy onto it's feet, "You can't mean..."

"A Blue Eyed Wolf with a fierce gray mane whom emerges from the twilight." Bangoo said, reverently looking upon the wolf as it curiously approached Bangoo, "You are not from this world...are you?"

"He probably isn't...never seen a wolf before?"

"This is a sign from the Spirits..." Bangoo muttered while ZWEI held back a laugh, "You are the reason that I returned to the White man's lands...I was told that I would you here and that...beside you would be a maiden of holy light and corrupting darkness..."

"Hey! You took most of the fun big guy!" Cassandra called out to Bangoo as she approached, "Come on Rock...I know that you've had a head start but-"

"Excuse me?" Bangoo asked Cassandra, who quickly blushed in embarrassment and at Bangoo's appearance, "Are you alright?"

"You're...you're just..."

"They think that you're pretty..." ZWEI muttered with disbelief, "What are you? A giggling little girl!"

"You'd be doing the same if he was a woman!" Cassandra shouted and turned his attention to Bangoo, "You...You must be Bangoo!"

"You know my name?"

"Rock told me about you." Cassandra replied, "You're...a lot bigger than I imagined...but...you have a cross shaped scar on your right cheek and your skin is tanned almost to where it's bronze except on the bicep of your right arm."

"And you are?"

"Cassandra..." Cassandra said, "I'm a friend of your father's...and it looks like you're not a friend of those bastards from earlier."

"Any who harm those that cannot defend themselves are no friends of mine."

"So you hate people that take fruit from trees-"

"Shut up Xiba!"

"But trees are alive too Leixia..."

Later that Night

"Thanks for finding the cave Natsu."

"Anytime..." Natsu replied to Leixia while the group sat around a campfire outside of a cave within the hills nearby, "Cassandra was the one who pointed me in the right direction."

"For once..."

"Alright ZWEI..." Cassandra took another swallow of soup, "You wouldn't believe what used to be in there...assuming that it's the right one..."

"What happened?"

"There's a sunken temple somewhere in that cave if it's the right one." Cassandra replied to Pyrrha, "I wondered into the cave and found the entrance. I explored the temple...fought this weird creature that was formed from brown glowing shards around a gross red eye..."

"Charade..." Maxi muttered as the Wolf growled, "Easy boy...hopefully we won't see that guy again..."

"Mother told me about him!" Leixia cried with slight excitement, "He was a swordsman who bought some shards of Soul Edge, but was murdered and thrown into the river. The shards absorbed his mangled body and became a living entity that could copy and remember any fighting style that it encountered..."

"A pain in the ass too..."

"Tell me about it..." Cassandra said in agreement with Maxi, "Well...I kept exploring and that Charade thing kept popping up wherever I went. Then I wondered into this giant maze and had to fight this really perverted Berserker..."

"Oh! So he wanted to touch your breasts?" Xiba asked before being smacked by Natsu, "I was just asking...isn't that perverts do?"

"It was a little worst...he wanted me to have a baby worthy of Soul Edge..." Cassandra muttered with sheer annoyance and dread, "It cost me my dress and tights...but a swift stab to the crouch put that plan to rest."

"Oh..." Every male in the group except for a confused Xiba began to gasp in horror along with ZWEI while Cassandra just proudly nodded, "Couldn't you have just stabbed his stomach-"

"Probably wouldn't have mattered...the guy was so big that the sword would've sunk into that fat belly of his..." Cassandra said with a laugh, "That was the last time that I ever went into a cave with a broken sword."

"A wise lesson...I am sure..." Bangoo agreed when he recovered from the "male shock", "Tell me...when did you meet my father?"

"Rock? I think...seventeen years ago?" Cassandra thought as Bangoo intentively listened, "I didn't travel with him that long though...my sister knew him better, she met him on her first and second journey when I was just a kid."

"You were a friend of Rock?"

"He was a great man, friendly and pretty funny too." Cassandra delightfully recalled and saw Bangoo's face harden, "Did I...say something wrong?"

"Would you grieve then...to know that he is dead?"

"WHAT?" Cassandra's shout echoed into the cave, "How? When?"

"Seventeen years ago..." Bangoo answered as Cassandra listened, "He came to the Castle of the Crimson Darkness and fought to destroy one of it's servants. A large being with a great axe and a soul-less drive to kill."

"Astaroth? I wasn't the only one then." Maxi added when he saw Cassandra's glare, "What are you looking at me for? I only met the man once and I'd almost got myself killed going after the wrong man."

"What do you mean? Were you an enemy of my father?"

"Not intentionally...the Giant Astaroth was created from the style and blood of your father." Maxi explained, "When I met him, I mistook him for an enemy...and then he let me go."

"I see...you acted in ignorance of the truth..." Bangoo concluded and looked from Cassandra to Pyrrha, "Your hair...it is like the hair of the holy woman."

"Holy Woman?"

"A woman who my father often encountered on his journeys." Bangoo said while his warm features began to harden, "A woman who fought with your steps but more refined and less recklessly. She had long yellow hair and a gentle visage in her eyes."

"That's Sophitia!" Cassandra said excitedly and caught Bangoo's now suspicious glance, "Sorry...she was my sister..."

"Was? Is she dead?"

"Yeah...she is..."

"I am sorry that you have lost a sister." Bangoo said apologetically yet sternly, "But how would your grief change if you knew that she killed my father?"

"No..." Cassandra said while Bangoo watched her, "There's no way that Sophitia would've done something like that! Sophitia would never have-"

"I remember now! Yeah...that's what happened..." Maxi said to interrupt the fuming Cassandra, "Your sister battled to defend Soul Edge and...killed many travelers who came to Nightmare's stronghold-"

"SHUT UP! THAT'S A LIE!" Cassandra shouted at both Maxi and Bangoo, "My sister...was...not a murderer..."

"Didn't you mention that Sophitia had attacked you?" Maxi asked the increasingly angry Cassandra, "That she beat you and knocked you out? She spared your life because you were her sister...but she didn't give that mercy to anyone else unless Tira or Nightmare had better plans for them-"

"I sense that our words will do little to persuade you." Bangoo cut in with a sympathetic tone as Cassandra fumed and fell to her knees while growling, "Cassandra...perhaps the woman that killed my father was not the woman who you loved as a sister. Perhaps Sophitia was indeed a noble and compassionate holy warrior who was overcome by Soul Edge's power and joined the very thing that she had sworn to destroy. Whatever happened, the truth is that my father was killed upon your sister's blade...that is the truth."

"How do you know? You weren't even there!"

"How do you know that I lie? Where were you?" Bangoo asked while Cassandra's shoulders shrugged in sorrowful defeat, "Is Pyrrha her daughter?"

"Yes..."

"I sense both great darkness and great light within her..." Bangoo noted and gently tipped Cassandra's chin up, "I miss my father...but I hold no grudge against you or your sister's daughter. All that happened, happened the way that it was meant to happen...if it is otherwise...I would not know."

"Stupid gods..." Cassandra muttered while standing on her feet and walking away from the fireside, "I'm going for a walk...I won't go far..."

"You sure that you want to do that out here?" Maxi asked and decided to let Cassandra go based on one angry glare, "Have fun."

"I am sorry for upsetting you..." Bangoo apologized as Cassandra vanished within the woods, "She did not know?"

"Let's just say that she hasn't been around since the last gathering of swords and souls..."

"I see..." Bangoo said as he saw Pyrrha's tearful face, "Are you alright?"

"No..." Pyrrha muttered and held her knees up to her face, "I'm sorry...I'm sorry that my mother...killed your father..."

"Why should you be sorry?"

"Because she did it for me!"

"Pyrrha!" ZWEI shouted as Pyrrha disappeared into the cave, "Stupid women...this is not the time to split up like this!"

"They're upset okay? What's wrong with being upset?"

"It's a problem when women start acting like idiots because of your damned emotions!" ZWEI shouted into Leixia's face, "Hell! You're only out here because you got pissed at mommy for putting you into a dress!"

"I left because my mother wanted me to be one of the emperor's whores!"

"Least you wouldn't be my problem!" ZWEI was then kicked in the crouch and thrown to the ground by Leixia's swift attack. Recovering, he jumped to his feet and used his sword to block Leixia's swift chop, "Do you really want to do this little girl?"

"I'm not a child!"

"Could've fooled me!" EIN appeared above ZWEI and threw Leixia into the air as ZWEI slashed overhead and cut off one of Leixia's sleeves as she fell to the ground, "I defeated Nightmare little girl! You think that I'm scared of you!"

"And I am the daughter of the Flower In The Breeze!" Leixia declared as she fell into the stance of Ling-Sheng Su Blade, "A mere pedal of which is stronger than that metal pipe that you call a sword!"

"Okay..." Maxi breathed as Leixia and ZWEI continued their duel, "Bangoo...help me break the children up...Natsu, go after Pyrrha...Xiba, go after Cassandra and we'll all meet here...got it?"

"I believe that they're already gone." Bangoo pointed out, "You've taught them well..."

"They can be really stubborn sometimes and at least I'm not the only one." Maxi muttered while looking in ZWEI's direction, "How did Siegfried gain that guy's loyalty and respect?"

"I was taught that these things are earned rather than given..."

"A gift is nice once in a while though..." Maxi said as he dived into the duel and caught Leixia's blade in between his nunchuku and twisted the blade out of her hand. At the same time, Bangoo grabbed ZWEI in a massive bear hug and slammed him into the ground, "I think that we're done...don't you little pedal?"

"Master..."

Author's Note:

Ladies and Gentlemen! Please give a warm welcome to Rock's adopted son and successor, Bangoo!

Apparently, Dashi had wanted to include Bangoo in the character roster for SCV, but we all know how well that panned out.

I have no idea about which native american tribe that Rock and Bangoo were part of...so I purposefully left it vague. They could've been part of the same tribe as Pocahontas based on character art and that the Algonquian and Great Lakes Tribes were described as wearing little clothing except during winter and were located by the Northeastern Coast of North America...the most likely spot for a shipwrecked boy to wash ashore in.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like the animal spirit guide thing is a trait shared by multiple native american tribes and so I used it here for Bangoo. The Wolf is a symbol of freedom yet responsibility and considering that we already have a character that is a wolf, I felt like it would be a reasonable justification for him deciding to join Maxi's and Cassandra's Crew.

As for Rock...sorry guys, Sophitia killed him in this story.

If you've read my Logic's Insight on SCV, then you know that I'd envision replacing most of the Soul Blade cast with worthy replacements for the simple reason that their story arcs have been concluded.

Cervantes was killed by Ivy and only brought back due to bullshit ex machina; Sophitia died; Li-Long quit after nearly dying to Cervantes in Soul Blade; Siegfried achieved his redemption; Voldo was getting old; Rock only wanted to kill Astaroth and return home; Seong Mina and Hwang wanted to find Yun-Seong and bring him home; Taki didn't have to kill Siegfried because he destroyed Soul Edge without being controlled by Soul Calibur and Mitsurugi had found the answer to the Riddle of Steel (OBSCURE CONAN REFERENCE FOR THE WIN!)

As you saw, some Soul Blade characters are still around either due to SCV keeping them around or because I felt like they'd been pointlessly neglected. But Rock is unfortunately one of the few characters who won't be returning in the story. I choose to have him die by Sophitia's blade as a tragic ironic death by friend motif and so that Cassandra and Bangoo will have a point of contention to discuss between them...

Hopefully it pays off...