“Well well well,” The hooded woman said with a smile as the two of them met again, it was through her that Mark had learned that Magic is a concept within this world but when Mark would ask about how to harness and control Magic she would be elusive about it.

It irked him but he decided to play along her little game.

“I didn’t expect you to be the sentimental type.” She teased him placing a hand over her mouth in an ‘oh my’ gesture to tease him, which Mark couldn’t help but smirk about it. They were once more in her domain which was an all white version of the ruins of the castle he once resided in and it was the usual meeting place for the two of them.

“I didn’t expect it either, but I guess they grew into them.” Mark said with a shrug.

“I’ll admit it’s better that you cling to your family instead of being a lone wolf, no pun intended.” She said with a low voice. “But you know consider yourself lucky.”

“Oh? Did I per chance live?” Mark said almost surprised that he would survived.

“That’s right?” She snapped her fingers to reveal the scenery that was unfolding.

Mark watched as they were rescued by the Svasha branch of the Hashira Enterprise, who had integrated themselves with the Republic and so making Svasha the second most powerful Branch within the Enterprise. The Svasha Branch arrived with a pair of Rotorwings, which were airships that were capable of long distance travel through the air and among them was a familiar girl with a crossbow who hopped out and started firing at the nearby bandits.

It was none other than Anya Sokolov and she was there alongside other Republic Soldiers as they grabbed the remaining Combatants while gingerly taking Mark without removing the piece of metal that impaled him into the Rotorwing.

"Looks like you live to see another day," The Hooded Woman said with a visible smile.

"It seems so," Mark commented in a low voice.

"Take my advice, use this to go home and reconnect with your family. Being a family oriented person suits you more instead of a lone wolf." She told him as his vision began to fade and everything went black. Eventually Mark found himself staring at the ceiling of a hospital once more, his body was currently hurting from the wounds he had taken.

"Dirus?" He turned to the side and found Jerry and the other Surviving Combatant with a look of relief on their faces.

"I'm still alive huh," Mark said in a low voice as he looked down and found his chest covered in bandages.

"Just barely," Jerry said taking a seat as he explained to him what had happened. Turns out it wasn't just them that received the distress message from Gaige, the nearest Branch which was Svasha also received word of his situation and so they deployed to rescue him as well. But the problem is that it took them a lot longer to respond due the fact that they were dealing with a different bandit tribe in the process. And after they rescued Mark and the survivors of the rescue operation he was put under intensive care as he was on the verge of dying had not for the medical technology of the local Hashira Branch here and thus he was hospitalized for days and was fading in and out of consciousness due to his injuries.

“That explains why my hair grew longer than I maintained,” Mark said jokingly as he grabbed a handful of his hair. “So how’s—”

The doors opened up to reveal Gaige and Anya talking to one another in what appears to be a heated argument.

“I told you I’m friends with him and I know him far back to say that it’s—oh.”

“Well I’m telling you that he’s a close friend of mine so I say it’s fine for me to—oh.”

The two stared at him and blinked, a second have passed, and then another, until finally the two let out looks of relief and ran to his side comedically shoving Jerry and the other Combatants to the side in the process.

“Thank god you’re alright,” Gaige said who was on the verge of tears as he wiped his glasses while Anya was silently nodding who was already crying just very quietly as she was holding his hand.

“I got better didn’t I?” Mark said looking under his shirt to reveal that his chest was covered in bandages.

“You were on the verge of death via internal bleeding, it was short of a miracle if you ask me.” Anya said in a low voice wiping the tears off her eyes. “It was a miracle that you even woke up.”

“You guys are exaggerating it was just a small stomach wound via impalement.” Mark scoffed as he laid down on his bed. “So what happens to me now?”

“Well the original mission is to rescue me and bring me home,” Gaige said crossing his arms with Anya nodding. “You already got the first half of the mission halfway done so that leaves to the second half which is to bring me home.”

“Great when do we start?” Mark said standing up and removing the cannula of the IV bag that was connected on his arm and stood up much to the horror of everyone present who immediately usher him to the bed once more much to his confusion.

“No we nearly lost you out there so please rest,” Gaige said as they pushed him to the bed.

“Yes sir it’s fine if we delay for the time being.” Jerry said with a worried look on his face.

“That’s right please rest.” Anya said holding him down as she started pressing the Call Nurse button repeatedly.

And so for the next few days, Mark would just rest and in the last few days of staying in the Hospital, Mark and Anya used this to catch up with one another and there Mark learned that apart from the Republic Assimilating the local Hashira Branch into their government Anya and a few other volunteers joined Hashira as Initiates with plans on becoming Agents as well hence why she was part of the rescue effort a while back.

“So last few years have been good for you huh.” Anya teased Mark as she wheeled him out of the hospital room and made their way towards the hospital grounds which was to allow him to inhale some of that crisp Svashan fresh air.

“I used my years more on training instead of socializing so I can’t say those were good.” Mark commented with a shrug, he was never that vocal towards his own troops. All he did during the last few years was train and master Arthur, something that he managed to pull off in a matter of years.

“Your men were very worried for you though, it was clear that despite being the lack of socialization they clearly care for you.” She said with a smile as they reached a balcony that overlooked the entire city of Starvalt which illuminated the night sky of the mountaintop.

“It’s beautiful isn’t it?” Anya said in a low voice as she had adjusted her glasses, she was surprisingly beautiful at that moment, the way her eyes twinkled in excitement and the way the wind blows through her hair it was clear that a lot of young men and women would have swooned over her beauty.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Yeah it sure is.” Mark whispered in a low voice as he found himself staring at her, eventually Anya turned towards him and found him staring at her much to her confusion.

“Is there...something on my face?” She asked in a confused manner.

“Sorry I was distracted by a nice view.” Mark grinned causing her cheeks to flush and look away as she shook him in his wheelchair. “You jerk! I bet you use that line on every woman you meet,” She grinned as she continued to shake him in the wheelchair.

“Hey knock it off I might fall off,” Mark said with a mixture of amusement and annoyance in what she was doing to him.

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[Rise of the Dark Hound]

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Miriam, my dearest sister. I apologize for once again not being able to send calls or messages. I am currently recovering after being severely injured during a rescue mission involving our old friend Gaige. Truth be told I didn't expect to reunite with Gaige after so many years and--

"Who are you writing to?" Anya asked as she entered his room with a tray of food. It had been their routine for her come in and check on him, often with a tray of food in her hands or some books for them to read and talk. When not her, it would be Gaige who would come and check on him who was busy tinkering with something.

"My sister, I've been too busy lately so I decided to use this to write to her." Mark replied as he crumpled it into a ball and set it to a pile of paper which had already accumulated an impressive size.

"We have gadgets for that you know," She sat down and flashed him a grin as she fished out a phone from her pocket.

"At first I sent messages via those things," Mark scoffed as he slumped against his bed. "But after being sent to areas where there are no signals I started sending messages via pen and paper."

"So it became a habit?"

"More or less."

"That reminds me, Gaige—"

Gaige entered the room covered in dirt and grime as though he had been unable to bathe in days alongside Arnold with a wide smile on their faces all the while appearing to be holding a mechanical belt of the sorts.

"We've done it!" Gaige said excitedly.

"I was just about to tell him that." Anya said with an amused laugh much to Mark's confusion.

“What’s going on?” Mark asked as he tried to stand up, unlike before Mark is now fully capable of moving around so long as it isn’t anything strenuous. Gaige said nothing but walk towards the table to the side and placed the belt on it with a smile.

“I’ve finally completed the Proto-Augment Driver,” Gaige said with a wide grin as Mark walked towards the Table to took a closer look it resembled that of a mechanical belt bag.

“It doesn’t look much, but when used with a Keycard,” He fished out a keycard that read ‘Direfang’ on it as placed it on the table as well. “It’ll deploy an augmented armor that protects the wielder from all known physical harm through the use of Nanomachines from the GRAIL and the Sokolov’s hard light Technology.”

All physical harm? Mark thought raising an eyebrow at him thinking of the prospect of a deployable armor that’s reinforced twice with two powerful concepts. This made him want to monopolize the Armor before it gets mass produced.

“I want to try it,” Mark said walking towards the belt causing everyone present to give him a worried look.

“Wait hold on—” Gaige and Anya were about to voice their disapproval but Mark quickly put on the belt with inserted the Direfang Keycard on the main belt and he was enveloped in a bright light, he felt his body be wrapped around nanomachines all the while a direfang wolf manifested in front of him and then lunged at him causing it to disassemble into additional armor pieces. And so Mark was standing there, wearing a set of Armor that’s made of nanomachines and hard light with a Wolf shaped helmet.

“Not bad,” Mark said his voice was hollow as though he was speaking through a radio.

“You shouldn’t have put that on so carelessly!” Gaige reprimanded him as he and Anya let out a sigh of relief while Arnold was busy writing down notes, likely the observations on the whole thing. True to the name it was still a prototype in it’s testing phase, so putting it on would be a potential health risk and he was lucky that Mark wore it without any problems.

“Yeah for all we know there could be whiplash on the whole thing!” Anya said throwing a pillow on Mark but as she threw the pillow at him, the User Interface of the Armor moved slowly as though it was predicting the movements as such Mark moved to the side dodged.

“It can predict movements,” Mark observed causing Arnold to write down a few more on his notes.

“Yeah it was part of the program I developed for it,” Gaige said as he walked towards Mark and removed the keycard from the belt causing the hardlight armor pieces to face and the Nanomachines to slither back into the belt.

"I plan to develop more features the more keycards I make." Gaige said as Mark took off the belt and handed it back to him.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg of what Gaige plans to develop in the future," Arnold said handing him the notes to Gaige, according to Gaige he plans to mass produce the armors and have them become a standard equipment for the Hashira Enterprise Combatants but he has yet to figure out how to deal with the flaws of the Augment Armors.

"In that case I'll be looking forward to how it'll work." Mark said looking at the Proto-Augment Driver with growing curiosity. "That settles it then, I'm taking you home."

The trio gave him a confused look on their faces but then they changed from confusion to shock.

"Wait in your current state? No way," Anya said in disapproval with the two scientists nodding in agreement, according to the doctors they have mentioned that he must rest for at least a few more weeks for him to fully recover from the injury he had went through.

"As the one handling this mission and thus I have full authority over this." Mark replied as he pressed the Call Nurse button. “And we’re heading home so you can focus on this project.”

True to what Mark had just said, he had the already recovered Hashira Combatants to prepare for the long haul trip to Archiman so they can send Gaige and Arnold home, and it helps that Mark was already recovering at that point. And so Mark stood in the motor pool in full combat gear with the Mk. V Combat Armor alongside the survivors of his unit that was tasked in rescuing them, the Svasha Combatants on the other hand went back and forth running errands and preparing their equipment and supplies for the road trip to Archiman.

There were two ulterior motives behind his rush, the first was to expedite the process on the development of the Augment Driver as he saw a lot of potential on the weapon. And the second one was so that he can rest and catch up with his family back on Fenrir, and maybe surprise them this.

He walked towards one of the trucks where Gaige and Arnold were present, who are also sporting a set of Mk. V Combat Armor but Gaige is equipped with a Sniper rifle and Arnold was armed with a chainsword.

“Just so you know, bringing me home won’t let me instantly improve the development of the Armors.” Gaige said crossing his arms and putting down the sniper rifle on the seat while Arnold already chose to climb into the Truck while muttering an excuse in a low voice.

“But you’ll let me at least get first access to it right?” Mark asked innocently.

“Normally I’d say no but after looking into your combat report for the past few days I think it’s safe to say that you’re on the top list. I’ve heard of what you were able to pull off at Hideyoshi and it’s safe to say you’re overqualified to be an Agent.” Gaige said pulling out his tablet and showed Mark the reports about him, all signs point to him being a skilled fighter that it was clear that his current situation is holding him back.

“Yeah I’ve been told that a lot.”

“Mark.”

The two turned around to find Anya walking towards them while lugging her crossbow, Gaige sighed a little and backed away giving the two youths a moment.

“So you’re leaving again huh,” She said fiddling with the strap of her Crossbow over her shoulder.

“If it’s about what happened before and leaving you on your own I’m—" Mark tried to explain himself but she cut him off.

"--it's not about that, I just wanna say that the next time we ever see each other. I wanna take you a tour to the new parts of the City.” She said with a flustered look on her face but before Mark can even reply about it, Anya turned around and walked away.

“So uh…” Gaige trailed off. “I’ll keep this a secret from Gray okay?”

“Quiet you.” Mark replied in a low voice.