Tenryu Fyreroar woke with a jolt.

He had momentarily drifted off to nap but felt that dream was so real. His nose strangely felt sore as though something had hit straight him in the face. He got up and stretched a bit. Knowing he couldn’t make it out of the forest by nightfall he found himself a shelter underneath a large Marblewood Tree. And just in time too, because clouds started to darken signaling a heavy rain. Tenryu, by nature, doesn’t like getting wet. He lit a fire and roasted a large turkey-goose by it. He caught this while wandering around in the forest earlier and is now admiring his dinner as it cooked over the flames!

“It’s almost done! I can almost taste it!” said Tenryu gleefully as drool was dripping from the side of his mouth.

Just then he can hear something rustling in the bushes.

“Who’s there?!” says Tenryu, getting on to his feet and jumping out of his shelter.

A bush rustled.

Tenryu braced himself, his hand gripping on the hilt of his blade. The sword grew warm in his touch!

Then from out of the bush…a small creature hopped out of it.

Tenryu looked at it with anticlimax washing over him.

“What the blitz?” he approached and picked it up. “You got me all blazed up for nothing!”

The little creature wiggled its nose at him. It looked a little cute.

“Wait a blitzing minute…” Tenryu got a good look at it. “Aren’t you…a Rabbit-Armadillo?!”

This animal looked like a cross between a bunny rabbit and an armadillo. The one Tenryu was holding may look cute but when it matures… they can grow into gargantuan sizes and can be pretty aggressive! Especially when it comes to protecting their young!

The ground began to shake. Tenryu quickly dropped the baby Rabbit-Armadillo, which scrambled towards the rustling bushes.

A giant Rabbit-Armadillo that was the size of a truck leapt right in front of him.

“Oh, blitz…”

Its teeth were bared with foaming spit dripping from its mouth. And its furious red eyes were directed at him.

“Look, I didn’t do anything to it! Your kid sneaked up on me!” Tenryu said to it, backing off.

Obviously it didn’t understand what he was saying as it roared and lunged at him.

Tenryu managed to make the leap of his life, literally!

 “You asked for it!” Tenryu he pulled out his sword, causing it to blaze in flames.

The Rabbit-Armadillo Mother lunged at him again. Tenryu retaliated with shooting it in the flames. His sword made contact on its snout causing it to be slightly dazed. However, this seems to only serve to anger the beast as it roared angrily and made a quick swipe at him.

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Tenryu leapt backwards to avoid its claws. 

“Let’s fight claws with claws!” the flames on Tenryu’s sword began take shape of flaming claw. Tenryu rushed toward the beast and leapt at it. “Flame Dragon Style: Blitz Claw!”

He took a swipe at the Rabbit-Armadillo! The flames looked like a large claw had slashed at the beast!

“How do you like that?” Tenryu leapt away from it, with cheeky grin.

However as soon as the flames disappeared, he was stunned to find the Rabbit-Armadillo had curled up into a ball. It then uncurled showing it wasn’t the least bit scratched!

Tenryu has forgotten a very important fact with this beast. It’s the natural defense mechanism of Rabiddillos to protect itself by curling up exposing only its armor-like hide. This makes it all the more difficult to fight it.

“You’re one tough nut to crack!”

The Rabbit-Armadillo made another furious swipe at him which he blocked with his sword. It did, however, push him back a few feet.

Tenryu managed to regain his footing as the beast ready itself for another pounce.

“Flame Dragon Style: Fire Fang!” says Tenryu as he swung his sword down, releasing swirling flames at the Rabbit-Armadillo, which quickly curled into hard ball again.

His attack made contact on the hard outer shell again.

“Blast it!” Tenryu gritted his teeth. “Get out of there, you cowardly shelled fur-ball!”

Tenryu made a series of slashes at it made little dent on the armor-like shell.

Eventually Tenryu wound up exhausting itself, his attacks were getting weaker.

“Blasted fire-balls… Get out there!” He panted.

He swung his sword with all his might and he fell to his knees completely exhausted.

It seems the beast also noticed this as it uncurled itself and raising a large claw and taking another furious swipe at him. 

This time it caught Tenryu from below the knees, knocking him off balance and stumbling to the ground.  Tenryu tried to get but found the beast already looming over him. The Rabbit-Armadillo roared while bearing open its jaws and sharp teeth at him.

Tenryu smirked at it and wasn’t the last bit fazed, “You call that a roar? Roar this!”

Tenryu placed the sword in front of him. He took a deep breath and blew out just like a fire-breather performer, letting loose a huge flamethrower directly at the Rabbit-Armadillo’s face and open mouth.

The Rabbit-Armadillo yelped and jumped away from him. Its snout was still covered in flames.

Tenryu jumped back onto his feet, his sword ablaze.

“You’re gonna get it now! Flame Dragon Style Secret Art: Dragon’s Red Sun!”

Tenryu raced his sword upward creating an enormous sphere of flames.

The beast seemed to sense that this spell was something not even its hard shell can protect it from! So it turned on its paws and ran away from him as fast it could. The baby Rabbit-Armadillo followed its mother in hot pursuit.

“What the blitz? Come back here!” Tenryu yelled at it before it disappeared into the forest.

Disappointed, Tenryu extinguished his spell and walked back to his shelter.

“Blast it! Just when it was getting to the good part too…*sniff…what’s burning?”

Technically his fight with the Rabbit-Armadillo has charred some of the trees but the smell was different from burnt wood.

In fact it smelled, almost like-

“My dinner!” shouts Tenryu as rushed towards the campfire. The fight caused him to completely forgotten about his dinner which was now charred black in the flames.

“BLISTERING BLITZES!!!” yelled Tenryu in frustration, causing several bird-like creatures to fly out toward the distance in fright.

Tenryu slumps to the ground.

“Can things get any worse?!”

A thunder clapped again, this time followed by sudden heavy downpour of rain.

“Blast it! I can’t go looking for food in this rain!” Tenryu slumped to the ground…his stomach growling. “I’m so…starving…Oh wait! There’s Flare-Ate’s packed lunch for me!”

Tenryu rummaged in his little belt bag and pulled out a large container which was strangely too big for it to fit. In this world magical bags have convenient spaces. He opened the container, and to his disappointment some steamed fish and vegetables were there.

“Flare-Ate…I told her that I hate fish!” Tenryu groaned but then he stomach growled again. “Can’t be helped…”

Tenryu laid his gloved hand over it and soon it started the food started to grow warm that little steam was coming out of it. Weakly, he took a small bite of the fish he began chewing, although it didn’t suit his taste at least it got some food in his stomach.

At that moment, a lightning bolt seared across the sky.