"I'll say it again, let go of my little girl and leave, or else."
"Or else what?! Do you really think you can stop m— Aaagh!!"
Before Clugil can say more, the wolf-man uses his other arm to hit the arm that he is holding by the elbow. He hit him so hard that he can actually hear the bones of Clugil's arm break. After that devastating blow, Clugil finally releases the little girl as she runs towards her mother who was on the floor
"I was going to let you all go, but if you all messed with my family, you will regret it."
"You bastard! Touya, Raiji , kill him!"
Clugil commands both Touya and Raiji to try to take down the large wolf-man. Raiji takes out a pair of short swords behind him while Touya, instead of having a weapon on him, uses his bare hands to attempt to take him down.
"You'll regret messing with us!"
Both of them charge at the wolf-man with Raiji being five feet ahead of Touya. The swift Raiji took a winding arc to swing his swords at the wolf-man.
The wolf-man quickly dodges the attack before it can get to him and then he counters it with an uppercut. The force of the wolf-man's uppercut pushed Raiji to the other side of the room, but luckily he stopped himself by landing on all fours.
"Hyah!"
Touya launches a straight jab towards the wolf-man. He blocks the attack with his arms raised in front of his face. Touya continued to keep attacking the wolf-man and the wolf-man kept on blocking his punches. But then...
"Gotcha!"
As Touya is going for another strike, the wolf-man parries the attack and hits Touya with a hard jab to the abdomen, then proceeds with a spinning roundhouse kick, sending Touya slamming himself into the wall.
Raiji lunges towards the wolf-man, attempting to slash him. But with the wolf-man's fast reaction time, he dodges the attack and throws him into the wall. He quickly landed on the wall with his feet, and then, with intense speed, Raiji bounced off the wall to try to land a hit on him. The wolf-man dodges past him, but Raiji bounced off another wall to charge at him and successfully got a clean hit on the left shoulder. Raiji bounces off another wall to attempt to go in for another attack. The wolf-man can try to dodge the next attack, but...
"Hoooh!"
"—!!"
Before the wolf-man can even attempt to dodge the next attack, Touya intercepts him by striking in front of him. He had no choice but to block the attack. And while the wolf-man blocks Touya's attacks, Raiji uses his chance and cuts him on the wolf-man's exposed back with his sword, leaving a large cut behind him.
The combination between the tiger-man's slow but powerful strikes and the dog-man's weak, but swift and agile cuts are a dangerous combination. The wolf-man has nothing to defend himself; no shield, no armor, not even some sort of magic to defend himself from harm, but the wolf-man is not giving up. He continues to hold his ground, enduring the hits that he has taken.
Both of the children couldn't do anything but let out a yell while holding on to their mother's clutches. Meanwhile, Clugil laughs maniacally as he sees the wolf-man getting cut up by Raiji's blades and being beaten by Touya's fists.
"You see!? This is what happens if you mess with me! Nobody messes with me!"
"That's where you're wrong."
"What was that?"
Clugil looked back at the person who said it. It was the red-haired woman with dog-like ears. Instead of looking at despair, she smiled, as if there's actually hope to this fight, despite the circumstances.
"I know my husband for years, he and I fought guys that are way worse. He'll never lose to assholes like you. Isn't that right, Gin?"
"You...betcha! HHHUUUAAAHHH!!"
In response, the large wolf-man, whose name was Gin, let out a loud and gusty roar, blowing away anything that was around him, including the attackers. Clugil, even though he was close to victory, he was bewildered by what was going on.
"W-What the hell!? Hey, did I tell you to stop? Keep doing what you're doing and kill him!"
He sends both Touya and Raiji to continue the fight; Raiji hopped on Touya's arm and he tosses Raiji towards the wolf-man. Just as before he can cut him with his sword, Gin charges towards him and delivers a wide backfist jab, moving away Raiji that was in front of him. Luckily Raiji blocks the attack, but he still gets shoved out of the way.
"Heads up Touya! He's heading towards you!"
Taking heed of Raiji's warning, Touya became prepared and both of them clenched to each other. Their hands locked into each other, but Gin has the upper hand. With the strength he has, he pushes Touya down until his knees touch the floor, and then, he kicks the tiger-man's face using his knee, sending him flying to the other side of the room and knocking him out.
"Damn you!"
After witnessing Touya's defeat, Raiji charges towards Gin with a flying kick, but he raises his arms to block the incoming attack. Raiji proceeds to jump off of the wolf-man's arms and lands on the wall with his feet and uses his intense speed to bounce off wall-to-wall. This was the same technique that he'd already used before.
"You can't outmatch my speed! I'm the fastest member there is! There's no way you can beat me!"
With this much speed, it seems likely that Raiji is indeed the fastest member of the Blue Sharks, however, this doesn't faze Gin in the slightest. Raiji set his sight towards Gin and pounced off the wall to go for a direct attack towards him.
"Don't think that same move will work on me this time!"
"Wha—?!"
But before he can reach him, Gin throws some sort of pottery with fully grown flowers towards Raiji. Raiji couldn't dodge in midair, so he had no choice but to block the incoming pot. Gin uses this advantage and quickly grabs Raiji's arm and throws him to the hard wooden floor of the shop repeatedly until he knocks him out cold.
He faced two of Clugil's only men and defeated them all by himself. all that is left now is Clugil himself. Gin, who is covered with cuts and blood around his body, approaches Clugil, grabs him by the collar, and lifts him off of his feet from the ground.
"Now, leave my family and my store alone!"
Then after that, in a fit of rage, he kicks Clugil to the nearest entrance.
"Grr, d-damn you! Just you wait, asshole! When I come back, I'll bring more men with me and they will kill you all of your kind!"
"Come and try! And if you do, I'll break that other arm of yours!"
And with that, Clugil had fled from the store, leaving from Gin's sights. He gave a sigh of relief as he chased off that criminal—that is Clugil—from the store and never invades or harms his family ever again—or at the very least, that's what he hopes.
"Hey, are you alright? Hopefully they didn't— arg!"
After Gin had kicked out Clugil and defeated his crew, he looks back to his wife and his two children, who were both saved by this large wolf. But he crouches himself on the wooden floor as he was both exhausted and in pain when he fought both Touya and Raiji.
"Papa!"
The two children quickly head towards their father who was badly wounded from the fight. But without any warning, they hug around their wounded father as he screams out "Ah! E-Easy with your old man!".
"I was so scared, Papa!"
"Me too, Papa! He was gonna hurt sis, I don't know what to do!"
"Don't worry, I ain't letting nobody going to hurt you or your mother. If there are more bad guys coming, your daddy will ruff em' up!"
The two children, both brother and sister, hug Gin tightly as they begin to tear up. They have seen terrible things that happened to this place. Thieves raiding their home, their mother being hurt, and the little girl was nearly killed by Clugil. They were lucky to have a father that protected them.
As he's being hugged by his children, the red-haired, dog-eared woman looks at him with a worried expression and sighs.
"I'm happy that you came for us, but you need to take it easy on yourself. Gosh, your body isn't capable like you used to back in the day, you know."
"I know, Enna, but I couldn't let them hurt you or the kids, so it was the only way to protect you guys. You guys are meaningful to me. Didn't I tell you before when we married? I'll protect you with all my life, that's all that matters."
"Gin..."
Enna's worries begin to settle down as Gin states that he'll risk his life for his wife and their children. That alone is enough to make her crack a smile—but only for a short while. After Jin promised that he would devote his life for her, she squeezed his black nose hard, causing Jin to cry out an "Ow!".
"But what I would like to know is who gave you permission to use my flowers as throwing objects? I worked so hard growing them!"
"I'm sorry Enna, but it was the only way I can think of to stop his speed. I'd hate to admit it, but he was indeed fast."
"You idiot! You moron! Y-You...pea-brained Kowler!"
"Ahh, AHH!"
Even if he did explain his reasoning to throw the flowerpot when he was fighting against Raiji, Enna couldn't forgive Gin for what he had done. She repeatedly hits the mortally-wounded Gin, trying to get him to teach a lesson.
What Gin said isn't actually wrong; if he hadn't thrown the flowerpot and made one false move, he would've been killed by Raiji's blades. Luckily, he made the right decision.
"Okay, okay! I won't do it again, I swear! But please heal me?"
"Oh, right!"
Gin submits to her and begs her to heal him instead of hitting him. Enna placed her hands on top of her back, where the large gaping cut is in front of her, and emits a bright yellow light in front of her. The wound starts to close itself up and the blood starts to disappear as if nothing had happened.
After she closes the wound, Enna claps her hands together.
"There we go, all done."
"Whew! Thanks! Now I'm back in tip top sha— ack!"
As Gin attempted to send his fist to the air, he still felt the pain inside of him. Even though the large cut had disappeared from his body, there are other cuts and bruises that are around his body.
"Hold it there, buck-o! Don't think I'm not done. I still need to—"
"—Ah!"
But before Enna could say anything else, the little girl cried out and they turned their attention to what she's looking at. It was Touya, who was getting up and standing in front of them.
"Oho? You wanna go for round two, big guy? Kn—!"
"Ah! Wait, don't! I'm not finished healing!"
Gin attempts to get up to get into another fight with him, but due to his injuries, he couldn't get himself up. His wife Enna warns him that his wounds haven't fully healed, but despite his injuries, Gin readies himself and takes a battle stance as he is ready to fight the remaining enemy that is in front of him.
However, Touya took a brief look at both the woman and the children and shook his head.
"I'd rather not get into fights that involve civilians, including children. Even if my boss is, well...cruel to others, I'm not the kind of person who does that."
"I see... I respect that, thank you."
As Gin hears Touya's reasoning, his tensions soften as he doesn't see him as a threat—at least for now. Then, Touya asks him a question.
"Mind if you tell me your name?"
"It's Gin. Yours?"
"Touya. Touya Bagolna. I'll see you again, Gin, and I can promise you that we'll fight fair next time."
Touya picks up the unconscious Raiji from the floor and places him over his shoulder and leaves the store. Struggling to keep himself standing, Gin sat on the wooden floor. Enna sighs and resumes healing Gin's wounds.
"Man, you really are a doofus."
"Well, it is the only way to drive them off. Do you think they'll believe that?"
"Oh it's believable, alright."
Enna gave a sarcastic banter to what Gin had said. Whether it was believable or not, Gin knows that if they do come back to this store, he'll single-handedly face against what was coming at him without a doubt.
While Enna continues to heal him, he turns to Enna and asks her a question.
"You know, I've heard that a boy came to your store to fight those guys. Is that true?"
"Oh, that's right! Before you arrived, that boy did try to save us."
Enna points to the boy who is down on the floor, who seemed like he was unconscious during the fight.
"So that's him?"
"Mhm. Thank goodness that he came, albeit it only took one hit to knock him out. If he hadn't prolonged those guys, we would've lost both the shop and the children."
"I see... I gotta thank him when he wakes up."
He stroked his dark-violet beard as he became curious about the boy who had attempted to save Gin's wife and children.
❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋❋
"Dammit, dammit, dammit! I can't believe I lost to that dog-faced bastard?! He can go to hell for all I care! And that slut that was with him too!"
Some time had passed since Clugil and his gang raided Gin's store and got their butt kicked by Gin. Clugil and two of his members, Touya and the unconscious Raiji, escaped from the store and ran into the alley.
Suffered from humiliation, Clugil angrily kicks the dirt from the ground and kicks an empty can in front of him to the other side of the alley.
"But that boy... If he hadn't interfered, we would have done a clean sweep! If I get a chance to see him again, I'm going to choke him to death!"
"Uhh, sir?"
"Then I chop off his arms, his legs, his tail, and his head and feed them to the pack of wolves and sell his organs to the black market!!"
"Sir..."
"And as for that bastard, Gin. I've always hated his kind! I want to turn his fur into my coat and hunt down every last member of his race. Then I'll kill his slut and sell their kids as slaves—"
"Sir Clugil!"
"WHAT!?"
Touya's ears folded back as Clugil shouted with the top of his lungs at Touya with saliva crawling down from his mouth. He was only trying to get Clugil's attention, but he ended up getting yelled at by him.
"—Ah!"
After looking at Touya, with a depressed look on his face, he realizes that his anger is getting into him; he couldn't help but feel regret. Clugil takes out a napkin from his coat and wipes the saliva from his mouth. Then he calmly took a deep breath and looked back at Touya.
"Listen, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you. It was a habit of mine getting to my head again. Anyways, what is it?"
"While we were running away from the place, I've been thinking about how we're gonna tell the boss about this."
"Ah, right. Him..."
Clugil places his fingers on his chin and strokes his imaginary beard as he is trying to come up with an idea of how he is going to tell his boss. If Clugil's boss hears the situation about what happened at Gin's store and failed their mission, he would give justice to them that Clugil and his minions wouldn't want to imagine.
As agitated he is now, Clugil is afraid to return to his boss to report what went on at the store.
"If we tell him and hear about this, we're as good as dead! If we quit now, he'll send hitmen to come and kill us! And this was my only last chance. I can't afford to lose another!"
"Ugh... What happened?"
While Clugil continues to argue to himself, Raiji, who was knocked out during the conversation, starts to regain consciousness. Touya lays Raiji from his shoulder to the ground.
"Oh, good! You're awake Raiji."
"Yeah. That guy got me good. That wolf guy got some moves, it was unbelievable. Anyways, did we beat him?"
As Raiji asks Clugil a question, Clugil looks down at the ground with an awkward look at his face. Raiji turns his eyes to Touya and he sees him giving the same reaction. Raiji takes notice of this and he slams his fist to the ground.
"Tsk! Damnit! Sorry boss. If only he hadn't knocked me out, if I would've been stronger and my weakness hadn't gotten in the way, it'll be goodnight for him."
"Hey, it's not your fault."
"Yeah, man. You've at least tried your best. Hate to admit it, but you fight better than me. That scar isn't just for show, it was a gift. Believe me, I know."
Clugil pats Raiji's shoulders as Touya tries to cheer up his partner from his defeat against Jin. Then, Clugil snaps his fingers as if he has an idea—or rather, a scheme.
"I think I've come up with a solution, and I know how we are going to handle this."
"Uhh, sir..."
"Huh, what is it?"
"They're here."
When Raiji warns Clugil what was coming, he and Touya turn their attention to who Raiji was pointing at. They see two men that are in front of them.
One is a slender short pale-skinned elf with messy hair, who is around the same height as Clugil. He is dressed in dark-red clothes, a dark-blue scarf, and wears a black mask that covers his mouth, leaving only his eyes visible.
The other is a dark-green scaled lizardman with a ragged shirt and pants. He is a foot shorter than Touya and has a very muscular build, but unlike his elf friend, the lizardman is missing an entire left arm up to the shoulder from his body. In place of his missing limb, he was given a long copper-coated metal arm that is attached by the shoulder. Even if he can't feel it, he can still move, lift, and pick up things with it.
As they approach the thievish trio, Clugil gives a low growl at them, as if they are that kind of people that they don't want to meet.
"What do you guys want?"
"Oh nothin'. We were just mindin' our own business until we heard that some of our familiar members got their asses beat, so we just thought it would be yer guys' weak ass. I knew that ya three are a complete joke!"
Word had gone out in the city that Clugil, Touya, and Raiji had been defeated by the likes of Gin. So not only the civilians had heard of this, but also other members of the Blue Sharks, too.
As the lizardman throws out some words to their fellow thug's members with some strange accent of his, Clugil responds to him and rebuttals to his comment.
"Yeah, we got our asses beat. So what? It's not like that we lost a limb or anything."
"What the hell did ya just say?!"
The lizardman's attitude changes his expression from cocky to angry from Clugil's comment. Given the context of what Clugil had said, it makes sense for him to be angry.
Before the lizardman is about to charge head-in to Clugil to pick a fight, the elf raises his hand in front of him, making him not engage in any combat.
"At ease Pugar! We did not come here to fight, we came to give you a message."
"A message? From who?"
"From Vikov himself."
"The boss?!"
Both Touya and Raiji were surprised when the pale-skinned elf called out the name. To Clugil's crew, Vikov is the leader of the Blue Sharks and the one who pulls the strings that cause havoc in Vincilos. He's in charge of sending his men to go to people's homes and wreck things if they don't have the money. Anyone who dares defy or betrays the Blue Sharks will be killed.
Even upon hearing the name in front of them, Clugil clicked his tongue as if he sounded rather annoyed than being interested.
"So the boss himself is sending his lackeys to send me a message. Anyways, what does he want?"
"He wants the three of you to return to base. He'll need to have a word with you."
"Wait, us? What for?"
"I cannot answer that. He told us not to give out information in public. If you want answers, then it's the best that you answer his call. You, Clugil Rapadota, must accept it. Refusing it will be—"
"Yeah, yeah, refusing it will be a betrayal towards the Blue Sharks and it'll lead to death, blah, blah, blah, I get it, quit your trap!"
Clugil still finds it annoying when he has to hear the same rule over and over again. No matter what he chooses, he is forced to obey his call. Clugil has no choice but to follow it through and go back to base.
"Well, you heard them. Time to head back."
As Clugil commands both Touya and Raiji to follow him, they look at each other with a troubled look on their faces, then they look back at Clugil.
"I dunno sir. This seems kinda sketchy."
"Yeah. I mean, not that I'm complaining, but don't you think that this is a bit strange?
"Well you have no other options, you'll either obey or die. That's the way the Blue Sharks work. Now c'mon, let's go."
Even though both Touya and Raiji try to tell Clugil to think it over beforehand, they are forced to go along with it. The three of them are heading to the Blue Shark's base, where the leader of the Blue Sharks is calling for them.