"Gareeku, wake up!" a voice said as the wolf felt something small object on his chest.
"Uugh... let me sleep... " Gareeku groaned, trying his best to go back to sleep, weary from travelling to Harkhun. Finally giving up as the voice kept telling him to get up, the wolf opened his eyes, only to be met with a big pair of eyes looking into his; all green in colour, which in turn belonged to a small, black creature, sporting a long paper-thin tail.
"Yay! You're awake!" the warp-aci exclaimed happily, hugging the wolf who was now sat up in bed.
"Hey there Li, I take it Uncle Jacob is here" Gareeku replied with a warm smile, returning the hug to the happy creature.
"Yep! See you downstairs Gareeku!" Li announced and so raced out of the room and back downstairs.
Having had a shower and gotten dressed, Gareeku arrived downstairs to find his mother talking to a fox incubus; Jacob Hannack, Alica's twin brother and Gareeku's Uncle. Noticing his nephew's arrival, Jacob smiled broadly and embraced him in a hug before sitting back down at the kitchen table, Gareeku also taking a seat.
"Gareeku my boy! Good to see you again! How's the adventuring coming along? I hear you've established quite a reputation" Jacob said, grinning as he sipped some tea. While some may have been slightly taken aback by the incubus' lively behaviour, Gareeku was by now used to his uncle's mannerisms, and couldn't help but smile as he watched his uncle talk. As he had done with his mother the day before, Gareeku talked with his Uncle and caught up on how each of them had been doing.
The two of them were still talking a while later, when suddenly shouts of alarm were heard outside. Out of instinct, Gareeku immediately grabbed his sword and dashed outside to see what the commotion was about, followed closely by his Uncle, Li and his mother. Many of the townspeople were already outside, looking at the intruder, a lioness succubus, and the bodies of the guards behind her, a smirk on her face as her eyes scanned the townspeople. The succubus was scantly clad to say the least, seemingly only wearing red underwear.
"Charline?" Gareeku growled softly as he looked at the intruder. The succubus known as Charline had a reputation for being evil to say the very least. Ruthless and sadistic in her methods, she was known to have destroyed many towns and cities all across the world of Furrae, sometimes for mere pleasure and sometimes for other reasons, although why she had chosen this town of cubi as what appeared to be her next target was as of yet unknown.
"Why are you here? To lay waste to a town of your own kind?" Gareeku said calmly as he stepped forward in front of the others, his gi blowing softly in the slight breeze as silence fell upon the townspeople.
"Heh... I'm here for you actually" Charline replied flatly, brushing her long blonde hair from her face as she laid her eyes on the wolf standing opposite her. Seeing Gareeku raise an eyebrow at her statement, the succubus smirked again. "While I may have a reputation, so do you, Gareeku Manoko. I've come to see this reputation for myself"
"You want to fight me because of my so-called reputation? Pretty lame excuse I'd say, but if it's a fight you want, it's a fight you're going to get. We fight outside of the town" Gareeku said in a calm but yet threatening voice, motioning to the now-open gates.
"Fight outside the gates? Spare me the hero crap. But I might as well agree to it" Charline snickered, before following the wolf through the gates and out in the grass between the town walls and the forest.
Gareeku was the first to attack, dashing forward as he unsheathed his blade, before going for a horizontal slash to Charline's neck, hoping to end the fight swiftly. His hopes would be dashed however, as Charline easily dodged the attack, turning one of her wing feathers into a tentacle and striking Gareeku in the jaw with it, sending his body crashing to the floor. Getting pant up, the warrior rand his thumb across his lip, wiping the blood from it before attacking again, attempt a series of sword attacks to different areas of Charline's body, each sword movement blending into the next, creating a fluid but deadly dance of the blade. Gareeku's efforts would come to no fruition once more however, as the succubus moved with incredible speed and grace. As Gareeku executed the last attack with his sword; a stabbing movement that was aimed at Charline's heart. Weaving swiftly away from the sword's path, the succubus grinned evilly, exposing her razor sharp fangs as she saw an opening in Gareeku's defences; an exposed part of his gut.
Gareeku's facial expression then turned from one of slight frustration to one of shock and pain, as Charline's fist buried itself in the wolf's gut, sucking the air from his lungs, the energy from his body and filling his midsection with incredible pain. The lioness succubus then began a merciless assault on Gareeku, an expression of dark satisfaction on her face as he inflicted great damage on the warrior's body. Charline then sent her fist thundering into the side of his head, sending his body flying. Not ceasing her attack there, Charline then summoned her wing-tentacles, the newly-formed limbs stretching out and grabbing Gareeku's leg, dragging his body back to the succubus, where more wing-tentacles wrapped around the warrior's body and began to squeeze.
"How very disappointing, I didn't even have to use magic. I was expecting a lot more from a warrior with such a reputation as yours" Charline sneered, the wing tentacles applying more pressure on Gareeku's body by the second, causing the wolf to cry out in pain as his body was being crushed. "Pathetic" Charline muttered, ceasing the squeezing and instead grabbing him by the scruff of his neck and throwing his body into a nearby tree, the impact creating a dent in the bark as Gareeku's body slumped at the base, slipping into unconscious as his vision went blurry, and then black.