To be a Lucario was to be a warrior. One that adheres to honor and justice like no other can.

To be a Crusader was to be a holy knight. One that adheres to the faith and protects the faithful. Both the sword and shield of the divine.

To be both was to be a protector of all, the faithful and the gentile alike. One who does what is righteous in this world, so that all may know the kindness of the Light.

Swinging to the left, his sword caught the side of the man’s hand, slicing it clean off with a sickening noise. The scream of agony that followed was quieted with a Bone Rush to the human’s forehead, the body dropping to the dirt as Lucario twisted on a heel to meet his next target.

He had been born amongst one of the faithful clans. One of the precious few that were granted the gift of becoming one with the Church. Descendents of the Lucario who had helped the prophets of the Light bring salvation to all.

Forming a bone of pure aura in his hands, he quickly sidestepped the Mightyena that had lunged for him. With an iron swing, he caught the skull of the beast with a deafening thud. It shattered like a watermelon, gore splattering across his armor as he barely ducked an arrow from behind.

He had trained hard amongst his fellows, days and nights tossed away to brutal training. He had studied the rites and beliefs of the faith long into darkest hours, candlelight being his only companion. He had prayed, meditated, and endured the pain of the lash to prove his faith, time and time again. And at the end of it all, he was rewarded.

A strangled sound rang above him. A reminder of the time limit that ticked down ever further as he dealt with these maddened men. Their eyes spoke of a desperate desire for salvation, that they only believed could come from execution.

They had brought him amongst the holy warriors of the Church, the Crusaders, and proclaimed him one of the newest recruits. Man and mon alike had stepped forward, offering their congratulations and warnings of the times to come. He welcomed them both.

One of many lynch mobs, formed as the madness that consumed the world crept closer to the village. They had blamed one of the residents for what was soon to strike, claiming that her very existence was the reason the apocalyptic taint came for them.

He trained even harder than before, studied more than he had ever considered, and gave his life unto the cause with such devotion that it could not be ignored. More than once, he had found himself falling in the midst of training, and being ushered off to the infirmary for his recklessness.

They blamed the lawman’s Absol for the damnation approaching them all. Broken into the office of the sheriff, slaughtered him in his own home, and dragged her out like a wild animal. A doombringer, they had said, would be put to rope for their crime of heralding the end.

In less than a year, his training had come to an end. He was brought before the elders of the church, and gifted the fine armor that those of the order wore. The sword he inherited from his master was strapped to his side, and before all, he was blessed by the Light.

Dodging another arrow as he spun on his heel, he kicked forward towards the bow-wielding man with a fury! His palm met the man’s head after only a moment, and the force sent him hard against the hanging tree, a bloody splatter defining the man’s fate as the hanging tree swung about from the strike. A strangled cry let him know that the Absol was still fighting… he only had three more to handle. Three more, and she was saved.

Under the command of the elders, Lucario set off for a village at the edge of the region. A small one, beset by bandits and famine, he was to protect and guide it unto prosperity.

A moment’s rise of one of his feelers gave him ample warning of the threat from behind, allowing him to duck just in time to miss the lunge of a Liepard! The cat’s attack had left it wide open, and with a hard kick of his armored paw, the armor did naught to lessen the feel of bones crumbling underneath the force of the kick, shattering into innumerable pieces. With its corpse slamming against the brush, he quickly flung himself to his feet to face the final two lynchmen.

Despite the ailments of the village, despite the raids and the hunger, the people he had found within that small village were a hardy lot. Tight-knit, kind, and admirable.

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With a furious scream, he threw an Aura Sphere at blistering speeds towards the first of the men. It blew through him like a cannonball, shocking the second long enough for Lucario to blitz forward with an Extreme Speed. The resulting tackle folded the man in half with a sickening crunch of a shattering spine, ending the very last of the executioners in brutal fashion. The only noise he could hear was the quickly-fading gasps of the dark-type above…

They say the madness that had come to consume the world had spread from some far-off hamlet of some little-known noble family. They say there had been attempts to contain it. All he could remember was the horror he felt as he watched the town he had come to love fall to panic and paranoia.

Throwing himself to his feet with a panicked gasp, he braced himself before launching up at the tree, his armor rattling as he did so. Swinging his blade with a precision built over years of intense training, the blade sliced clean through the noose that held the girl in the air. She fell fast, and though others might have lost her to the ground, Lucario found himself able to land just in time to catch the choked dark-type in his arms.

Paranoia began to eat away at the residents, and every day brought some new horrible conflict to the small town. Fights broke out as the villagers accused each other of witchcraft and black magic. Outsiders found themselves assaulted and murdered by the people as the corruption spread ever closer to the town. Many fled into the woods or the roads, and never came back. Day by day, the place he had come to know so well fell apart.

Ripping away the rope that had been tied around her neck, the knight quickly got to tending to the Absol as she choked and sputtered, rope burn and painful blisters about her neck fading as Heal Pulse after Heal Pulse was applied. With air and lucidity returning to the girl with every moment, a terrible realization of what had nearly happened struck her. This would’ve been the end for her, if not for the efforts of this singular Lucario…

He tried to keep law and order, he tried to mend the fraying bonds that had once been tight, he had! Yet, for every triumph he made in these dark times, three more failures bloomed at the same time. So many of his fellows had been called back that, by the time the village was on the brink of being hit by the corruption, he was the only knight left within a town of paranoia.

She let out a strangled, painful cry, and Lucario thought that his efforts might not have been enough, that she was still yet on the verge of death from her time on the rope! Yet he found himself being proven wrong by a tight embrace from the quadruped only moments, liquid running down the front of his armor and the back of his neck. Yet it was not blood he felt…

The madness that soon threatened to consume them all was not something he could stop. He could not stop its approach towards the village, he could not stop the crazed residents of the hell it created, and he couldn’t even save many of the residents of the village he had been assigned to protect.

Tears ran down from the Absol’s eyes, her cries tinged with muttered, barely audible utterances of thanks. She claws held tight onto his armor, and where another mon would hesitate, he did not. Tossing his sword to the wayside, he returned the embrace twofold, placing his armored head against her own as his breath shuttered.

Despite it all, however, he still tried. He still tried to bring the salvation and safety he once did before this madness. If he could not save the village, he could at least save some of the people within.

He couldn’t save everyone. But he could save her.

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Walking past the bloodied corpses and out of the clearing with the Absol in his embrace, he came to find the village in flames and panic when he had returned. The corruption, the madness, and the monsters it created… it had reached the village. And he could do naught but stare in horror at the abominations he saw ravaging the people within. Were it not for the girl he had just saved, he would’ve rushed down into the town and begun his own crusade. But…

“The town’s fucked, Sir Lucario. There’s no saving that mess.”

Turning to face the voice, the Absol in his arms receded further as he narrowed his eyes. The voice’s owner was none other than the Lawman’s other partner, an Alpha Mightyena that served as his method of transportation when required. Said Mightyena was currently bearing the saddle and bridle that, at one time, would’ve held the very man he served… but the both of them already knew what had happened to him.

“I am aware, Halone. What would you suppose we do, then, if the town is lost?”

Halone looked at him as if he was mad, before flicking his head back towards the leather binding him.

“Easy answer to that one… you get in the saddle, keep Alessia with you, and ride us all off to whatever church you came from. They should have something for you and I to do… and I get the feeling that you don’t want to go fighting with her at your side.”

Giving the thought a moment’s consideration, a final look at the town helped set his choice in stone. With a nod, he stepped up to the side of the dog and threw himself on, settling the near-unconscious Absol in front of him before picking up the reins.

“Before you say it… believe me, I don’t like abandoning the town either, Sir. But at this rate? The three of us aren’t going to do much for it, even if she wasn’t half-asleep. It’s best to back off for now and get our bearings.”

Sighing, Lucario could only nod as he gave a kick of his armored heels to the dog beneath him.

“I had thought as much. Very well… let us be off, my friend.”

With those final words, the three found themselves bounding off along the path away from the town, the burning ashes and agonized screams flowing into the air around them as the sky turned a disgusting red…