Valen walks through town, a smile on his lips as Lin’s little feet pitter patter behind him. An ice cream cone in her hands as she tries her best to avoid making a mess on her new dress, a cute picture of a kitten in the center. Her head wobbles slightly from the weight of the top hat on her head, between her ears.

As the duo make their way to the town entrance, a familiar duo stands near the entrance. Belinda stares at Wukong, a menacing thing considering Wukong's size dwarfs hers. Valen, finding the situation troublesome, decides to turn back, only to be noticed by Wukong.

"You," he yells, pushing Belinda out of the way with his weight, which is formidable considering the plate armor he wears, and the decorated staff on his shoulder.

Noticing Wukong approaching with a hostile gait, Valen’s training quickly kicks in. Black combat armor appears across his form, a menacing black helmet sprouts into being, covering his face.

Wukongs stride immediately stops as he stares at such an immediate use of mana.

Using Wukong's pause, a shotgun appears in his hands, armor penetrating slugs at the ready. As Wukong starts to continue his stride and Valen prepares to pull the trigger, a bellowing yell is heard.

“WUKONG!” Garren yells. The force of the sound rings through the town, a menacing powerful yell that can be felt into the soul.

Garren stands next to a tree, shining metal armor covers his body as a Massive Warhammer sits on his should. Garren glares menacingly at the soldiers, guards, and Wukong. As his stare travels to Valen, he finds him moving to put his body in front of Lin, weapon at the ready.

Nodding in approval of Valen’s protective nature, Garren turns to Wukong, whose staff is in his hands, at the ready.” If you have a problem with anyone in my town, you will have to go through me,”Garren bellows, a powerful force sent with each word.

Wukong stares at the armored Bear, weapon at the ready to counter of attack.”Get out of my way,” Wukong yells at Garren, who places himself between Wukong and Valen.”I will regain my honor from that man, even if I have to go through you to do it,” Wukong yells, anger apparent in his voice.

Garren starts to laugh,"You injure a little girl from your anger, and you speak of regaining honor," cracking his neck left and right," my guards will not interfere, come show me what you can do with that little stick of yours," Garren admonishes as he takes his massive Warhammer off his shoulders.

Understanding the challenge, Wukong looks towards centurion, who nods in understanding. Taking the challenge to heart, Wukong steps forward,"I am Wukong, son of Wukong the 16th, state your challenge," he yells towards Garren.

“Shut your formal crap,” Garren yells “I am here to pound that shitty face into the ground”.

An annoyed look passes Wukong’s face as the civilians give the fighters room. “I will make you eat your words,” Wukong answers, mana starting to course through his body.

The two fighters stare menacingly at one another. Wukong’s fur starts to smoke, muscles expand, and the staff he wields starts to glow with slight blue light, the enchanted lines can be seen all along its length.

Noticing the unfocused mana emanating from Wukongs form, Garren opens his body to his own channels, the intoxicating controlled power spreads through his muscles. The strings of mana intertwine and enhance his already large girth. His fur stands on end, but no smoke bellows from his body, instead a dangerous light emits from the white of his eyes. As he channels his mana, a large amount of it pours into the handle of his hammer, the dormant runes finally being fed. Immediately the runic lines travel from the hilt straight to the massive ball at the tip. The air starts to vibrate menacingly around the ball. A humming sound starts to be discernible from the hammer. As the mana continues to pour into the hammer, the vibrations increase, so much so that all sound is drowned out by the humming it creates.

An indiscernible expression crosses Wukong face as he starts to feel the vibration from such a range. Fear slowly starts to root itself into his mind. But before he can decide to back out, Garren uses his massive enhanced strength to blast forward, his leg muscles propelling with such strength that the ground beneath him cracks, dust forming in its place.

Wukong, spinning his staff, prepares to absorb the impact with the enchantment. As Garren gets close to Wukong, an overhand strike ready, a vicious smile crosses his face. Immediately Garren lets go of his hammer, the momentum carrying it over Wukongs head. As Wukong's eyes stare at the hammer passing harmlessly over him, a large hand grabs the center of his staff. Garren quickly pulls the staff over his body, Wukong being pulled with it, and slams him and the staff on the ground.

Without being able to react, Garren body slams directly on top of Wukongs armored form, pinning his staff above his with one hand. With open wide eyes, Wukong watches as another meaty hand slams into his face.

Valen watches, still covered in armor, as the big Bear-kin man slams the face of the monkey continuously, the impacts jarring the floor. Looking at Lin, he finds her still holding the recorder at her face, staring at the monkey's pinned form with glee."My god, you are vicious," Valen comments, only to be quickly interrupted by Wukongs pleas.

"I yield, I yield," Wukong yells as he attempts to block Garren's strikes with his hands, staff abandoned after the first few hits.

Getting up off the whimpering Wukong, an unforgiving smile forms on Garren's face."You yield when I say you do" Garren says, as a meaty hand grabs Wukong's leg.

"No, please, nooooooooo, Help!!!" Wukong cries out as Garren drags him to the same tree that Lin struck. Taking a firmer hold on Wukong's leg, a loud yell is heard from Garren's mouth as he slams Wukong into the tree. The explosion of armor meeting wood is heard in the entire clearing, only to be interrupted by a tree as it falls on the ground, a broken Wukong lies unconscious next to it.

Looking down at the body and remembering Centurions story, Garrens spits on Wukong broken form and walks towards his Warhammer.

Belinda watches as her husband trudges into the crater where his hammer is located. Arms crossed across her chest, a proud smile dons her face. Looking towards the soldiers, fear is prevalent in their expressions, while the guards are yelling in approval.

Centurian stares at Garren, a calculating look on his face. Turning to his soldier and grabbing a potion from his back,”Go to Wukong and take him away, make sure you set his bones right before you give him this potion,” Centurian orders the frightened men.

Valen's armor disappears from his body as he watches a bunch of armored beast-kin run towards the monkey, giving a wide berth to Garren.

As Garren trudges closer to Belinda, she immediately interrupts his musing with a scowl."Did you have to break the tree Garren?" she asks, an annoyed smile taking form on her face."It's going to cost a lot of time to clean up this mess, especially the cleaning of all this dirt your stupid hammer caused." laughter ensues from the guards behind her.

A cheeky grin is all the answer she gets as Garren picks her up in his arms.”No worries love, these fine guards will clean up this mess.” Immediately Garren starts to walk home, a hammer on his shoulder and his old wife sitting on his arm. The guards stare at his retreating form, confusion evident on their faces.

____________________________________

Valen sits on a chair as Lin play's with the other children. They run, giggle, and laugh as they throw and chase a soccer ball through the streets.

On his lap is a laptop, showing the fight between the Bear and Monkey. He continues to watch and replay, looking for strengths and weaknesses. Each replay of the video fills him with more and more determination to get stronger.

Deciding that the best way to gain strength is to first understand the language, Valen gets up, and starts walking towards the kids, determination present on his face.

____________________________________

“Your showmanship is impeccable husband,” Belinda says as she snuggles closer to Garren.”Next time, don't break the town,” Zalena quips from Garren’s other side, rubbing her big belly.

“She is right Garren, you did not need to cause such a mess,” Belinda nods.

“That kid needed to learn his manners,” Garren starts, “ and the best way to do that is to show he is not at all on top of the food chain.”

Belinda nods in understanding,”Is that why you did not strike his staff with your hammer?”

"You saw that eh," a smile forms on Garren's lips," his staff has the potential to absorb impacts, but all enchants have limits. That staff would not have been able to even absorb half the force of my hammer,"shaking his head in disbelief, Garren looks to his hammer on the floor," That staff would have been destroyed, and the resulting explosion would have killed him, something I was warned not to do."

A quiet pause descends on the three, the crackling of fire the only sound heard.

"Well husband, I shall go to bed," Zalena informs as she gets off the couch."Hopefully, this child will be born soon," She says, staring at her bloated belly.

“Will you be alright getting up the stairs?” Balinda asks.

"No worries, a big belly isn't enough to stop me from going anywhere," Zalena answers, walking towards the stairs.

As Zalena leaves their sight, Garren puts his arm around Belinda, "It's been awhile since we were alone," says Garren, slowly stroking Belinda's arm.

Looking up at her husband, the old bunnies heart starts to flutter, the mood only broken by a scream.

“My water broke!” Zalena yells from up the stairs.

Before Garren can react, Balinda is already running up the stairs.

“Well…..Shit,” says Garren, as he too starts to get up.

____________________________________

Valen awakens to Lin poking him in the cheek, as he looks around the dark room, he finds her standing in the dark. Realizing that Valen is awake, she immediately points to the door, after a quiet moment, the sound of rustling is heard as someone is messing around with the lock.

Understanding the situation, Valen quietly gets out of bed, and quickly pulls Lin to the side of the bunk, hidden from the entrance of the trailer.

Slowly the clack of a lock is heard, and the trailer door slowly starts to open, the sound indiscernible unless you are listening for it.

Without looking, Valen summons a flash grenade in one hand, pulls the pin, and quickly cover Lins ears and eyes, a helmet forming across his face.

Valen feels the extreme impact of the grenade go off, and the vibrations travel through the floor. A deafening sound would have been heard if not for his helmet.

Letting Lin go, and jumping out of the hiding place, he finds the culprit leaning on one of the bunks, greatly disoriented.

Quickly pushing the individual to the ground, and mounting them, a knife forms in his hand, lying across the person's throat.

Piercing green eyes stare back at Valen.

Slowly Salena regains her senses, only her immediate usage of mana allowed her to stay conscious. Looking around the room, she finally notices the dagger at her throat, and a metal helmet staring at her face. The helmet quickly disappears, and hazel eyes stare menacingly at her.

As Salena continues to stare, Lin finally gets up from her hiding place and walks to the side of Valen.”Why are you here?” Lin asks as she stares at the mounted Panther-kin.

“I was checking to see how good of a possible mate Valen is,” Salena explains to the young tigress.

"Oooooooohhhhh….ok," Lin says. Nodding in approval.

Lin walks back to her bunk, jumps on her bed, and lays down, quickly falling asleep.

Valen stares at Lin, extreme confusion clear on his face. As he contemplates what to do with the petite girl covered in knives, a clawed hand starts to slowly stroke Valens leg.

Immediate realization hits Valen. Quickly getting up, Valen bends down and picks her up. As Salena starts to purr, Valen walks to the door of the trailer and unceremoniously throws her out, a squeal is heard through the air.

Quickly Valen closes the door, locks it, and walks back to bed. As he climbs in bed, a giggling lin can be heard in the bunk next to his.

“What the hell is wrong with these girls,” Valen whispers, sleep quickly overtaking him.