2 The Black Dragon

In the small town of Whistlejen, a hooded traveler was walking through an almost empty street. He came upon the sheriff's office and looked through the wanted posters. Scanning through the few bounties, he grabbed one and put it in his pouch. He was wearing a grey hood and cloak with black armor covering the rest of his body. He carried a simple sheathed cross-guard sword. He wore no ornaments on his armor that would distinguish him coming from any army. On the outside, he looked like any other human.

As he left, he noticed three men watching him. As he walked away from the board of posters, they started following him. He took a sharp turn into an alleyway. They quickly pursued. When they entered, they found the man facing a dead end. The three took out their swords. One of them exclaimed "Sorry, but you're not going anywhere. We don't need strangers taking our bounties."

After that statement, the hooded man turned to them and asked "Do you think that you can stop me?"

Another one of the thugs replied "There are four of us. You're outnumbered."

The hooded man thought "Four?" and looked around and noticed a bowman on the rooftop of the building next to them. "Careless of me not to notice", he thought, "but also careless of them to warn me".

As the three men moved closer pointing their swords and knives at him, the bowman kept his arrow pointed straight at the man.

"Just hand over that paper and some coin, and we'll let it go" one of the men said.

As he ended that sentence, the hooded man unsheathed his sword faster than any of the men could blink. In that moment, the bowman shot his arrow. He deflected it with my blade. The other three men flinched. The hooded man lunged forward. One kick. Two kicks. The pommel of my sword. In seconds, the thugs were knocked out. All that was left was for the archer. He looked towards the roof, and the bowman was stunned for that second. In the next, he ran away. The hooded man sheathed his blade.

He proceeded to loot the three unconscious thugs. He took some coins that they had and left them where they were.

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As he left the alley the same way he came in, he noticed a tavern. With the new bag of coins in hand, he walked over there with a smirk. As he entered the tavern, he took off his hood. He was Caucasian with black hair and yellow eyes. He walked over to the counter, while everybody else was drinking. He sat down and ordered a drink of water. He never had a tongue suited for alcohol, but he liked the presence of people enjoying themselves. The bartender poured him a cup of water.

"Very odd getting just water. You sure you don't want anything else."

The man placed some coins that he got off of the thugs on the counter and said "Cook me some chicken legs, too".

The bartender replied "I meant, a drink"

"I have a drink." he said "Water".

"I haven't seen you around before. Are you some knight?" he asked

"No. I don't work in any military. I guess you could say I'm a hunter. Both bounties and monsters."

As he finished that sentence, he drank his glass of water like it was a beer.

"Can you fill it up some more. Thanks." the man said.

A young waitress came up and placed a plate of chicken legs in front of me. She looked to be around 10 years of age.

"Here you go, sir" the waitress said.

The man smiled and nodded. As he was chewing his food, he said to the bartender "My name is Akai, by the way. You probably heard of me. Stopped plenty of bandits and monsters terrorizing towns."

"Never heard of you" the bartender said.

Akai seemed to not have heard him as he continued munching on his food and drinking his water.

"Agh. That's enough. Let go of me!" the waitress screamed.

Akai didn't look like he was listening and just continued to eat.

There were two men who were wearing soldier outfits harassing the waitress. They were either soldiers or mercenaries. Akai usually gets the two mixed up as both would act the same, with the exception of noble knights.

"C'mon, baby. Don't be like that" One of the mercenaries said as he grabbed the waitress.

The bartender ran over there screaming "Hey! Take your hands off!"

As soon as he got there, the other mercenary punched the bartender to the ground. Akai was still eating. He paid no attention to the commotion. Nobody else was getting up from their table. They all tried to ignore the two mercenaries.

The mercenary grabbed the waitress and put her head on the table. Tears started forming on the young waitress's face.

Akai stopped chewing.

"Maybe, you and I can get a room for some private time." The mercenary said to the waitress while holding her face down to the table.

The bartender started getting up, but the other mercenary kicked him back down.

Akai drank the remainder of his water and got up from his table. The mercenary kicking the a bartender down paused and looked at Akai.

The mercenary opened his mouth "Hey, you looking for some trou-"

In that moment, a cup was thrown straight at the mercenary's mouth. It shattered on impact. The skin on his lips were cut open. Blood oozed out of his mouth as he started to scream. He fell to his knees in pain, covering his own mouth. The other mercenary let go of the little waitress and unsheathed his blade.

"What the hell?" the other mercenary shouted in anger.

The mercenary started to run towards Akai, but Akai threw his plate of chicken legs at the assailant. The plate hit the mercenary's sword out of his hand. In the next second, Akai ran in front of him and grabbed both of the man's arms. He twisted them like it was rubber. The bones being shattered could be heard. There wasn't even time for the mercenary to react. He didn't even scream. He just stared for a few seconds at his twisted up arms in disbelief. After those couple of seconds, he was about to open his mouth to scream, but Akai put his hand over the mercenaries mouth and silenced it. Akai's eyes were burning with rage. He stared into the man's eyes with a searing rage, but it was over in a second. His rage burned out. He unsheathed his blade and stabbed the man through the heart. The body dropped on the floor. He took the same blade and stabbed the man on his knees. Both men were dead in that instant.

The young waitress and bartender watched this horrific act of violence and feared for their own lives. Akai realized what he had done and sheathed his blade back. He put his hood on and left a pouch full of coins on the table as he walked out of the tavern.

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As he walked out of the tavern, some onlookers were wondering what was going on inside. Akai withdrew coolly trying not to make a scene. He left the town and went into the woods to rest. He found a nice tree to sleep under, so he tried brushing off the sticks and stones in order to make a small bed. Akai lied down with his armor on. He took off a ring that was on his left hand. As he removed the ring, his ears started growing out like an elf and black scales started forming on his neck and the back of his hands. The rest of him is already covered up by armor, but scales had been growing underneath as well. Akai put the ring in a pouch and covered himself up with a cloak. He looked up at the trees and fell asleep.