Chapter 1

A bird was flying through the streets, which were densely packed with humans. The bird didn’t really like flying through towns as they were full of dirt and loud noises. If it weren’t for the lack of food in the nearby hills and forests, it would’ve never come to this place.

The bird was flying as fast as it could, so that it could leave for the hills sooner.

Suddenly some figures on the ground threw something into the air. The bird, who was concentrating on flying didn’t see the object fast enough and directly clashed with it, causing a loud crashing noise and countless sharp shards of glass flying in every direction. The bird chirped loudly and desperately tried to maintain the height of its flight. With its last struggles it flew with its bloody body through some more streets until it ultimately didn’t have the strength anymore and collapsed against a window, which made a slight dull sound.

Behind the window, in a shabby looking hotel room, a tall muscular man was sitting on the ground in a meditative position, with crossed legs and folded arms in front of his bare upper body. The man was really young, at most 20 years old, with a muscular body. Long black hair grew on his head and was bound with a wooden dragon into a braid. But the most eye-catching on the body of the man was a giant tattoo, which covered almost all of his back and half of his upper body. It was an unbelievably detailed looking Chinese Dragon, with countless sharp fangs, claws and scales. It looked like it was alive, as if it could jump out of the body of the man and devour the world.

A dull sound came from the window. Slowly the closed eyes of the man opened and revealed dark black eyes, which exuded a mysterious charm. He exhaled loudly and after checking a digital clock, which was standing right in front of him on a table, he stood up.

“It’s time.” He said to himself, almost whispering. The young man walked to a small cabinet in the corner of the room. He opened it, took out a black jacket with long sleeves and a big metallic box. Carefully he took off the cover from the box and two one handed Skandian axes were revealed. They were forged out of a strange black looking metal and fully carved in mysterious runic symbols mixed with Chinese characters and mythic beings, such as chimeras and hydras.

After a brief hesitation he reached into the box and carefully, almost as if the axes could shatter, he took them out of it. A strange glimmer flashed in his eyes as he observed the blades. Excitement, regret, love and pain. It was almost as if the axes were two girls which, instead of answering his courting, found out their lesbian sexuality and declared love for each other. With a low sigh, the man turned around, put the axes on a table und pulled the black jacket over his upper body. Lastly he took something out of the box, which couldn’t be seen before.

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It was a mask, looking like a dragons face. The man put the mask on his head, grabbed the two beautiful axes and made his way to the door.

A moment and a few floors later, a door in a shabby street opened. The street was filled with garbage and some drunks were slowly tumbling in the opposite direction from the door, occasionally shouting a few curses.

The masked man didn’t even look at the alcoholics and directly turned to the left walking into a small corner of the alley. With a few fast punches a part of the wall crumbled and gave way to another alley. This alley was almost completely empty except for a suspicious looking black van with darkened windows.

The man walked towards the car, neither slow nor fast. It seemed like it was perfectly normal for him that a strange black van was parked behind his house.

He reached the van and opened the back door.

“Dragon!”

”Finally!”

“Did you fall asleep meditating again?”

He was directly greeted by three different voices. Inside the back of the van there were sitting three men, looking almost the same as the one who opened the door. The only differences in the dark were the masks. Each of the men wore a different mask. Dragon, Tiger, Hawk, Turtle.

“Brothers, you know how it is…my meditative state cannot easily be disturbed.”

Dragon said and looked towards the front seats. “Snake’s not here yet?” he asked and stepped into the car.

“I was here before all of you…remember? I got kicked out of my hotel a few days ago.” An annoyed voice came from the driver seat and a man looked around its corner. This man was wearing a snake mask.

“Ah…sorry I totally forgot….well brother you shouldn’t have played with the owner’s daughter so openly.” Dragon said with a light smirk.

“Yeah right…” Snake mumbled annoyed and turned around again.

“Hehe…I heard that the hotel owner hired a few guys from the Ling Teng-Gang to deal with you. You need help?” said Turtle while laughing.

“If he can’t even settle those small things himself, then what the hell does he have to do with us.” Hawk said slowly.

“Could you shut your mouths?!?” Snake turned around again and angrily glared at the four guys in the back: “All of you.” He said with pressure in his voice as he saw Tiger opening his mouth to throw his comment into the discussion.

Tiger closed his mouth with a clap sound and decided to watch Snake with a mocking gaze.

“I really hate all of you! Where is the compassion? The empathy? Was I drunk when I agreed to be your brother?” Snake said with a mournful voice and acted like he wiped some tears from the cheeks of his mask.

“Stop acting, I told you its disgustin…!” Turtle directly started to rage but was immediately interrupted by a loud cough. All four shifted their gaze onto Dragon again, who was quietly sitting at the end of the van.

“You guys done yet, or should I hire a daycare for you?” he said half sarcastic, half serious. They knew each other for a long time already, since they started training martial arts. He knew that those brothers of him would probably never change again in their lifetime, but he also knew deep inside his heart, that he liked his brothers the way they were. And he knew for a fact that they felt the same towards each other and him. Even though they were not blood related, they grew to become the brothers they were now, through hard years of training and a lot of life and death situations.

“Let’s go. Those guys won’t kill themselves.” He said and motioned Snake with his hand to start driving.

“That’s right Snake, start driving…It’s a great night to spill some blood” Tiger growled and a crazed spark started shining in his eyes. Turtle and Hawk nodded too and Snake finally turned around, grumpily muttering curses under his breath. He turned the key, started the car and slowly rolled down the alley onto a bigger street. He turned right and soon became faster.