Dilstone City Park was a wonderful place to spend an afternoon. The tranquil atmosphere and pleasant greenery attracted many families and city events alike. These trees could tell all sorts of stories. Or at least they could when they weren’t on fire. As Huntress, Kraken, Blaze, and Zap arrived, the scene was very different. Apparently some poor soul had tried to run and Black Dragon had made an example of them, explaining the now scorched trees. Everyone in attendance from the award ceremony was currently huddled up together in the same spot, but Black Dragon was nowhere to be seen.

  “He’s above us!” Huntress shouted, her team scattering just in time to avoid a massive blast of fire raining down from above.

  Black Dragon landed right in the center of the flames, a rogue on each side of him. Standing up to his full height, he towered over everyone. Even Blaze seemed almost short compared to the dragon’s might. A wicked grin spread across his face as he slowly turned and looked between each of the rogues, completely unconcerned by their presence. This grin faltered for a moment once he turned back to Huntress.

  “What? No kitty cat today?” He mocked in an almost baby voice. “Sure hope she can deal with a few birds…”

  Before Huntress could act, a blast of lightning hit Black Dragon, Zap’s power flaring to dangerous new heights. The hero was brought to his knees, a grimace forming as he noticed Blaze charging up a fireball and Kraken clearly drawing from the sewers below. A tendril of water burst from the nearest manhole before flying at Black Dragon and rapidly crystalizing into ice. With a mighty yell, Black Dragon shot forth a massive fireball of his own, melting and evaporating the ice spear before it could reach him.

  Blaze’s fireball was quite intense as it crashed down over its target, resulting in a loud boom, hurling most of the group back. Out of the ashes, however, Black Dragon stood calmly and approached Blaze, grabbing his shoulder.

  “Not bad. But you’re not the only one who’s fireproof.” He warned before lifting off the ground and slinging Blaze into a nearby wall. The fiery Rogue crashed straight through it, falling unconscious in the rubble.

  Kraken and Zap also seemed to be hurt, but not quite to the extent Blaze had been. Seeing how quickly this fight was spiraling out of control, Huntress fired her trusty crossbow, the bolts bouncing harmlessly off of Black Dragon’s armor. A bolt did find its mark in his cheek, however. With a snarl, Black Dragon ripped out the crossbow bolt and slung it into the dirt, flying at Huntress with incredible speed.

  Her sword flew from its sheath in a flash, deflecting the fallen hero and sending him hurtling into a nearby picnic table, which splintered under the heavy impact. As Black Dragon stood, a fresh dent in his armor could be seen where the blade had impacted. The once mighty and fearless hero didn’t seem so invincible anymore.

  Kraken rejoined the fray, choosing to go hand to hand with his opponent. Coating his fists in continually supplied ice, he threw punches like a professional boxer. Going blow for blow with Kraken, Black Dragon spewed flames to try and catch his opponent off guard. This worked, forcing Kraken to block the otherwise deadly attack and leaving him open to a punch in the gut.

  As Kraken stumbled back, Huntress surged forward, taking a swing with her sword and forcing Black Dragon back onto the defensive. Now recovered from his temporary unconsciousness, Blaze leapt into battle just in time to serve as a shield for his leader. The fiery criminal grinned and laughed like a madman. He lived for fights like these.

  “Let’s see what you got, bitch!” Blaze challenged, charging forward and slamming into Black Dragon.

  Kraken came back into the fight with a nice shot to the lower back with his ice cold punches, leading to a sort of back and forth game of Black Dragon catch between him and Blaze. With Zap having also recovered, the rookie once again locked Black Dragon down with a continuous stream of electricity, forcing the former hero to his knees.

  A few miles away, the fight was very different. Black Dragon’s attic was in a state of utter chaos. Shelves were overturned, holes had been punched in the walls and ceiling, and a brainwashed harpy had just inadvertently discovered that most power tools can double as highly effective weapons.

  Ducking under a flying angle grinder, Swipe grimaced and ran circles around Bella, trying to figure out how to address this situation. The thrown power tool promptly crashed through the window, at which the harpy seemed to temporarily regain some of her mental agency. Her master would be very upset with her for breaking that window after all. Not one to pass up a golden opportunity, Swipe pounced, tackling Bella to the floor and hanging onto her with all four limbs.

  “Bella, snap out of it!” She yelled, trying to force her friend to see reason. “This ain’t you! Fight back!”

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Bella did in fact fight back. Just not against Black Dragon. With surprising strength, the harpy stood and slammed her back into a wall, forcing Swipe to take the brunt of the impact and earning a grunt of pained protest. Free from the grip of her feline enemy, Bella found and revved a chainsaw, swinging it around wildly in her wings. It wasn’t a particularly difficult thing for Swipe to dodge, but it did present other issues.

  “Bella! Put that thing down! You’re gonna hurt yourself!” Swipe shouted, ducking under a particularly clumsy swing.

  Sure enough, the chainsaw soon slipped from Bella’s gripless wings, and it bounced a good distance thanks to the spinning blade before embedding itself in a far wall.Grabbing the end of a long piece of rope, Swipe pounced on Bella again, pinning her friend once more to the floor.

  “Sorry, Bell! I’ll come back to getcha when this is over, okay?” Swipe promised as she tied up a very squirmy harpy.

  Bella, of course, was having none of it. However, with her wings and legs now tied, she couldn’t do much of anything besides roll around on the floor and screech. That screech turned into two screeches. Then four. Then ten. Suddenly, harpies were crashing through the attic from the outside, further complicating matters for Swipe. Sure, she had managed to restrain one harpy relatively safely, but she was woefully unprepared to deal with almost a dozen of them.

  “... Ugh. I think I’m gonna be late to the party.” Swipe grumbled, tying her rope into a lasso at one end. “Welp. Always wanted to try this lasso thing. Might as well.”

  In Dilstone City Park, Black Dragon continued to struggle against Zap’s electric hold on him. Meanwhile, Blaze and Kraken continued to throw punch after punch until Huntress gave the word and they instead focused on holding him down. Raising her sword, Huntress’s gaze never left her target. She had never killed a man before, but sometimes, exceptions had to be made.

  “This ends. Now.” Huntress declared, bringing the blade down.

  However, in a flash of motion, Black Dragon flapped his wings, soaring into the sky just as his head would have been severed. Silhouetted by the sun he blocked out with his body, he took a moment to catch his breath before grinning like a madman.

  “You’re strong. I underestimated you, I’ll admit to that.” He mused. “But you are right about one thing… This does end now.”

  Swooping back down, Black Dragon rained fire from above, forcing Kraken, Zap, and Huntress to roll out of the way. Blaze, for one, was undeterred and jumped up to catch Black Dragon midair, slamming the dark hero back to the ground and splitting the sidewalk with his armor. Unbothered by the fiery punches being thrown his way, Black Dragon stood tall, tossing Blaze off of him. As Huntress warned Blaze not to fight alone, Black Dragon caught one of the punches and quickly snuffed out the flames. Twisting his opponent’s arm, a sickening crack could be heard as Blaze snarled in pain and the former hero grinned wickedly.

  “There’s only one fire themed superhuman in this town, Blaze. And that’s me.” He whispered before flying again and tossing Blaze into the side of an office building, straight through the windows.

  Down to only three fighters, Huntress quickly ducked and rolled to reach the rest of her crew, narrowly avoiding another pass from Black Dragon’s flames.

  “We need a plan and I think I have one.” Huntress said, dumping her supply of crossbow bolts. “Kraken, use your water to get these bolts in the air. Space them out evenly if you can.”

  “What should I do?” Zap asked, watching as Kraken started creating almost a grid pattern in the skies above.

  Clapping the young man’s shoulder, Huntress smirked. “Light them up, rookie.”

  Realizing what Huntress’s plan was, Zap concentrated and that familiar neon blue returned to his eye. Focusing his power on the nearest bolt, he unleashed the full might of his electricity, watching the current spread from one bolt to another to form what may have been the world’s deadliest net.

  “Bring him down, love.” Huntress ordered, to which Kraken quickly complied.

  The net started to shrink, limiting where Black Dragon could and couldn’t fly. Slowly, but steadily, he came close enough to the ground for Huntress to look him in the eyes.

  “Now!” She commanded, the bolts darting toward Black Dragon at lightning speeds. In a burst of fire, the net was gone, but it had done its job. Black Dragon was on the ground, allowing Huntress to charge in with her blade. Forming an ice spear, Kraken was close behind, stabbing at the hero as Huntress took aim at his face.

  Between the vicious attacks, Zap would hurl bolts of electricity, attempting to throw Black Dragon off his game. However, he managed to grip and then crush Kraken’s spear before bellowing fire into his face. Kraken kept up his defensive wall of water for as long as he could, but it wasn’t enough. Huntress’s attempted beheading of Black Dragon was the only thing to save Kraken, who was forced to dodge. Heavily burned, Kraken stumbled backwards and collapsed into the grass.

  Zap didn’t fare much better. Flying toward his less experienced opponent at mach speeds, Black Dragon grabbed a hold of him and blasted through a nearby tree before unceremoniously dumping Zap into a trashcan. Enraged by what she was seeing, Huntress realized she was the last one who could stop him. She charged forward, but instead of grabbing a blade or a crossbow, she leapt onto Black Dragon and grabbed a grenade.

  Finally, after way more failed attempts than she would like to admit to, Swipe managed to lasso one of the harpies. The fact that they were all screeching and divebombing her definitely didn’t make things any easier either. Once she had that one tied down, she got to work, quickly managing to lasso and secure each of the ten harpies that had been sent after her.

  “Whew.” She sighed, looking over the near dozen harpies she now had tied up in a madman’s attic. She never thought she’d be doing that, but here she was.

  “Right. I gotta go get you guys back to normal. Eh, well mostly normal. You guys be good birds now, okay?” She naturally didn’t get a response from the brainwashed harpies, but there was little she could really do about that here.

  “Cool. See you in a bit.” With that, Swipe tore through the manor and out the front door on all fours for maximum speed. Her claws provided extra traction as she sprinted through the city streets, eventually reaching Dilstone City Park. As she took in the destruction around her, the burning trees, and her fallen teammates, she ran to their sides.

  “Kraken?! What happened?! Talk to me!” She demanded. In his current weakened state, however, Kraken only looked toward Huntress.

  Swipe’s eyes widened in horror as she noticed the grenade, knowing what Huntress planned to do. This plan was quickly derailed by Black Dragon throwing off Huntress and slamming her to the pavement of the sidewalk. He planted a foot on Huntress’s chest as a cruel smile spread across his face.

  “I’ve been waiting to roast you alive since our first-” He drawled coldly before being cut off by Swipe.

  “HEY!! You thought your harpies could stop me?! Do it yourself, ya worthless wannabe!”