Dragons of the Middle East

Once, deep in the mountains of Fiji, Japan, dragons and humans coexisted in peace. They shared a peace forged in wisdom, a peace that lasted many generations. All of that was lost when mankind disrupted this balance in a sudden onslaught. Mankind fought all of the dragons in a savage war that shook the foundations of their world. This war was called The Scouring. Defeated and humbled, dragons vanished from the realm. In time, mankind rebuilt and spread its domination across the land and on to the islands beyond. Nearly a millennium has passed since those dark days.

A millennium filled with many wars, and fights was also time of great happiness. The bonds between two humans became the strongest in existence, the memories of dragons banished to realms of fantasy and folklore. Their legends twisted until they where creatures of great evil, whose soul purpose was to command and destroy the humans, but they the humans overcame and vanquished the evil dragons. Humans of the current age paid no attention to the legends of dragons because they were figments of fantasy, but the adults and the elderly remember the stories and the dragons of the great evil that has yet to cloud the sky. So they remember the tales and treat the two humans of dragon blood with great disrespect because they are of the dragon decent.

The ancient dragons descended from the Deities of Creation, Sentiment, Wisdom, and Chaos; each one with a direct bond to each of the four elements of the earth. From these dragons the humans had allies for a spent of time, but once the dragons where slain, weapons were made from the bones of the Evil Dark Dragons and their memory forgotten; now though two heroes with the blood of the dragons carry their legendary weapons. Batoe Narasaki carries the Dragon Sword. However the Dark Dragon Blade, carved from the bones of the evil dark dragon, has a seal that would turn the wielder into the devil incarnate himself if it were broken.

The dragon sword, now however is gripped firmly in the hands of young Batoe Nrasaki and the staff of Kosoku is wielded in the capable hands of Kosuke Narasaki. Both also wield secondary weapons.Batoe wields a staff crafted from the strong branch of a willow tree that is said to harbor the power of the moon. It is given the distinctive name of the “Lunar”. Kosuke wields the Kitetsu Dagger; a weapon that is an angel winged dagger with a deadly point and an angel wing etched delicately into the soft gold of the handle. It is easily hidden and used for swift, silencing strokes.

The two young heroes grew up together in their village in the mountains of Japan, near the area where the first dragons appeared. Their family was modest in size and they made due with what they had, being so far away from civilization. The Narasaki village is known for the shrine that seals the Dark Dragon Blade away from the tainted hands of outsiders and the ones who seceded from the village many years ago in the pursuit of power.

Their village was attacked and the whole clan was killed before Batoe and Kosuke got back to their village. They searched for survivors digging through the rubble of burnt out homes and collapsed stone walls. Their search finally led them to the ancient shrine near the back of the forest behind the Clan Leader’s Residence. There, outside of the shrine, they see an evil fiend clad in black armor that absorbed the light. Two of the clan leaders, Ms. Kureha and Ms. Ayane, fell to the power of the evil blade, their blood staining the floor of the shrine. Batoe saw their lifeless, mangled bodies fall to the floor. Batoe, having seen two of his childhood friends die right infront of him, got hit with such a surge of emotion that he charged at the fiend, guarded by advanced ninja dressed in black garb and defeated them easily. After the souls of the sinners were vanquished, he attacked the fiend in such anger, that Btoe took two powerful blows; one strike to the lower abdomen, causing him to cough up blood, and another across his back, making it very difficult for him to stay conscious. Batoe collapsed and Kosuke blasted Doku with an arc of pure energy that proved her rightful place as one of the true heirs to the legendary dragons. With Doku’s arm hanging uselessly, he retreated still clutching the dark blade in his good hand. Kosuke quickly ran to where Batoe was laying, incapacitated on the ground. Wincing slightly, she said,“Distracted weren’t you.” She whispers, before picking bits of his clothing out of the wound and cleaning as best she could in the ruined village. The cut was jagged, and it would be difficult to heal, and he would probably be stuck with a scar for the rest of his days.

Closing her eyes she hovers her hands above his wound a pale blue illuminating her hands as the tissue slowly mending and the skin closing. She smiled as she stepped back, but her smile turned to frown as she surveyed the damange. Batoe soon sat up with a grunt, before standing. Kosuke looked at him. “We have to place runes, Says Batoe. Soon they had the Runes of Light place in key structural points of the village. They then realized that they needed to bury their slain brethren. The thought of disturbing the dead was disturbing and repulsive, but it had to be done. Then Kosuke looked over at Batoe. They both needed time to recover; Batoe, from his devastating wounds, and Kosuke from the severe exhaustion. Just as they had cleaned up the village, their job was not done. They needed to rebuild their destroyed village.Moving around so much after being healed from such severe wounds barely helped at all, but Kosuke was scared he would never fight again. But, Batoe was deteremined to overcome the damage to his body and fight again, to overcome his injuries and kill Doku and destroy the Holy Vigoor Emperor. As Batoe recovered and became more able they slowly rebuilt the village; not exactly back to it’s former state but it was rebuilt. Kosuke tried to stop him from rebuilding it too much, they where the only two left, and she worried he would strain himself. Of course he didn’t listen; he didn’t disrespect her, in fact it was quite the opposite, he wanted to help her so she didn’t have to do it all by herself. It took them nearly 18 months to rebuild the village and properly recover from the shock.

As they finished Batoe knew what he had to do, leaving Kosuke behind in the protection of the village, he travels to the capital city of Tairon and stowes away on a plane headed for the emperors city of Vigoor. During the flight, the plane is stopped by Vigoorian soilders. He didn’t want to fight, or at least not yet, but he knew he had no choice. Cutting through the soilders, he makes his way onto the roof of the plane and faces a human hybrid; half man, half machine. Batoe fights him, but the battle hard because the wind and the rain was ferious, and only made the metal surface of the roof extremely slipper, putting Batoe at more of a risk and disadvantage. If he had to jump to evade he would slide off, and a strong blow would send him off of the roof as well. The battle was soon over as Batoe killed the hybrid. But the danger wasn’t gone yet; as he killed the hybrid, it’s power cell combusted, splitting the sides of the plane. Batoe held on until the plane was low enough to jump to the power cables and use the protective armbands to slide down the power cables onto the near platform. Miraculously, Batoe survives the crash with only slight wounds.

Kosuke looked up from her work, as she sensed something wrong with Batoe, and reached out along there spiritual link to see if he was okay. Batoe was barely shaken, and Kosuke, satisfied he was okay, withdraws her connection. Batoe was soon though attacked by more vigoorian soilders; the explosion and crash had attracted a lot of attention. He fought them swiftly cutting through their ranks. After defeating them he needed a place to rest and soon finds his way to Muramasa's Blacksmith shop. Surveying the things in the shop, he buys an elixir incase of serious injury, as well as shuriken and kunai knives to help assist him in future battles.

Batoe soon received a message from the fiend hunter Rachel, who wields the legendary Yokosu War Hammer, stating that he should go to Han’s Bar, and it would be impossible to miss with the garish neon sign. Traveling to the bar, he sensed that something was not right and rushed in. He saw Rachel fighting a dragon fiend, that was actually more like an ogre other than dragons. Rachel soon conquered the fiend and introduced herself to Batoe, handing him a key. Batoe looked a the key and it had a lily carved into it. Rachel then told him that it would open a door to small alcove, the door would also have the lily, and that within the alcove would be a Talisman of Rebirth. Batoe got the talisman and put it away saving it for Kosuke. Batoe is attacked by three rougue ninja’s from the Red and Black Spider Clans; his sword knocked out of his hand, nearly causing him to get impaled, but he quickly evades it. Doding their attacks, he builds up energy in his hand and throws it towards the ground cracking it, causing the ninja’s to fall down onto their own swords, due to the immense vibration in the ground due to the cracking. With the battle done, Rachel informed him that he needed to travel to the Dworku Monastery and kill a greater fiend by the name of Alma. Rachel told him that she couldn’t kill Alma, for Alma was her sister; but she needed her soul to be free. She would have done it herself, but the emotional connection that had once been between the two sisters was still too strong to allow her to kill Alma.

Rachel warned him that the battle would be no walk in the park; Alma was strong, she could summon fiends, fly, and throw the heavy pillars that were in the monastery. Kosuke hears the conversation through her link; she hadn’t been listening but sometimes, it just happened, she was worried, and projects herself to him what had happened in the grueling battle against Doku. She tried to tell him to wait for her to help him, but he tells her to stay at the village, he wanted her to be safe. Batoe fought the battle doging flying pillars, but soon he defeated Alma after another grueling battle, leaving her nearly dead. Rachel stepped forward the finish off Alma, but she still was unable to free her sisters soul, and watches as Alma sinks into the ground to return to the emperor. A spy who had been watching Batoe trying to find his weakness sends word that Alma deserved to die because she was weak, and she had failed

Batoe watched Alma disappear then said to the spy,"It is not our place to judge whether someone deserves to live or die; everyone has a chance for redemption...whether they are a sinful demon or a faithful human" He sighed, then said, " I refuse to kill someone for no improtance". Batoe soon returned to the village, where he greeted Kosuke with a smile. Kosuke watched him as he walked into his room and a saw mark on his shoulder through a tear in his clothing and smiled. She didn’t know that he had the same mark, the mark that would keep there link intact, and wondered where he got it from. Batoe walked into his room to rest for once, as Kosuke prepared them a meal. She soon looked up as she heard the sound of a crash from his room. Running to his room, she sees Batoe struggling with a man. The man chanted some strange word and the mark on Batoe’s shoulder began to glow, causing him to scream at the immense pain. He soon fell unconscious. The man stands and said "That's enough Batoe". Kosuke strikes out at him in anger for hurting Batoe but her blows are blocked. She then tried to build up energy in her hand, but he absorbed it. He then spoke again, causing her mark to glow as well. She cries out as she collapses. She awoke the next morning before the sun had even fully risen, to see that Batoe gone. Kosuke reached out upon her link searching for Batoe, worried about him, but she couldn’t reach him, only making her more worried. She then resorts to the slower method of messaging, but again to no avail; her worry growing with each passing moment of time. Sitting down, she sighed as she placed her head in her hands, wondering what had happened to him. She hadn’t gotten a good enough look at the man to see who he was, but the man that had taken Batoe was his godfather, Musahi Kazuma, who only wanted to protect Batoe. Kosuke finally got tired of waiting for a word so she decided to go to the city authorities. She borded a plane and flew to the Dworku District in Vigoor, near the Zarkahn Waterfall. Once the plane landed, she headed to the local authorites and filed the report, telling them that a strange man had broken into their house and taken her brother. Though Musahi was Batoe’s godfather, he wasn’t Kosuke’s, they had two serperate sets of godparents. Kosuke sighed as the authorities told her they had no available information. With a sigh she headed towards the Twin Serpents Plaza near the drawbridge to think about how she was going to go about finding her brother. Wiping tears from her eyes, she looked up at the sky to see something speeding across it. As she focused on the figures she realized that they were two dragons; a Dark one and a grayish-white Wind Dragon. The two dragons where Musashi and Batoe. Musashi was falling behind and yelled at Batoe,"You should quit while you're ahead Batoe. I don't want to hurt you! I'm trying to protect you!" Batoe barely heard him and shouted back, “I’m not giving up. You could be trying to kill me!" Musashi growls and appeared in front of Batoe, causing him to fall down to the ground. He then dives down and turns back to his human form, landing next to Batoe. He then surrounds him in an elemental forcefield. “That should hold you and cut down your resistence.” He said. Kosuke ran forward and tried to reach Batoe, but Musahi warned her to stay back. Angrily she ran to the authorites only to return to find them gone. She heard the sound of swords clang and ran off in the direction, the officers staying behind since they had not heard the sound. The officers attempted to call her back, but she reluctantly ignored them, not caring about the danger that she could get in. They tell her that she won’t be allowed to come back to the city as they follow her, but she evaded them by doing a couple of flying bird flips up the wall, while the officers continue down the alley. As she reached the roof, she saw Batoe struggling with Musashi again. She frowned as she saw that Batoe was extremely exhausted and was leaving several openings in his defence. Musashi warned him yet again that he didn’t want to harm Batoe. Batoe grew aggravated as he gathered, then released a large amount of energy, sending Musashi flying into a cement wall and ripping off the mask he was wearing. Batoe recongnized the man he had just sent flying into a wall, and is overcome with emotion and flies away to think upon what he had just did to his godfather. But as he tried to fly away, a whole armada of soilders and police follwed him trying to shoot him down, but he destroyed them and the whole police sector before flying to a cave. Kosuke tried to follow him as best she could, but he faster then her, leaving her in his dust. She tapped into their link and discovered his location before he flew into the cave. She finds him collapsing on the ledge outside the cave as he landed from the extreme exhaustion. Kosuke flew down to him, landing and shifting back to human, as she kneeled next to him. She pulled him further into the cave. It would be better if he rested in a hospital, but it was too dangerous. As she looked down at him, she realized that Musashi had caused more than just great fatigue, the blood that dripped out of his mouth was proof of that. She sighed. "Musashi had probably hit him hard enough to cause internal bleeding.", she thought to herself. She then gathered enough wood to start a fire. They where both soaked from the rain and the mountains where chilly. Soon, the fire was flickering, warming the cave, and drying them both out. Kosuke left Batoe by the warmth of the fire and flew out, making sure no police where surrounding the cave or the nearby area. As she flew by the wall that Musashi had flew into she realizes he was awake and flew off back to the cave. A few seconds after her arrival to the cave, Musashi appeared at the entrance. As he arrived, he saw what he did to Batoe, and tried to help, but Kosuke tried to hold him at bay. She didn’t attack because she saw how tired he was. Apparently, this was only a trick.She realized that it was a clone a bit too late.She flew after the real Musashi knocking him out of the sky, getting annoyed with his interference, and the fact that he had hurt Batoe badly. She had to rush to catch Batoe who was tumbling his way towards the ground. As she caught him, she landed and carefully placed him on the ground; as she placed him down though she saw something in his pocket. It was a talisman of rebirth. She wondered why he had such a thing, he was good enough in combat not to need one. She had to quit wondering though, as she stood to face an angry Musashi. Musashi angrily tells her. “I warned you to leave me be and to not get involved.” She sensed that he was getting ready to attack, so, she built up energy in her staff ready to blast a ring of devasting energy to defend herself. Musashi went to attack but Kosuke blasted him. Although he fromed a darkness shield to block it, her power blasted straight through the shield destroying it and scattering the remains of the dark essence. As they fought Batoe slowly awakened to see Kosuke and Musashi fighting. He heard musashi say something but couldn't quite make it out from the distance, but then he saw the hand signs and realized what he was going to do. Batoe screamed for Kosuke to get out of the way just in time. Batoe almost gets hit with the Black Flame Phoenix as he slashes at it, scattering more dark essence. Musashi was about to attack again by thowing some Kunai knives at Kosuke, but Batoe stoped him by knocking him backwards. Deafeated, Musashi took to the skies hovering above the two. “This is not over.” He threatened, as he threw the kunai into the ground in front of the two, the knives imbedding themselves in the pavement.