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The Sting of Azure Lightning

Though street brawling was forbidden for non-military personnel in the city of Oplentis, a burgeoning underground community nonetheless flourished. The nobility, ever-seeking ways to entertain themselves, were more than happy to pay guards to look the other way, and commoners to fight for their amusement.

Edmund, under the stage name ‘Azure Lightning’, made a splash in this scene in his debut match against the reining champion ‘Big Mooscles’, managing to last a full round against the bull despite his inexperience. Taking home the prize money from the event was enough to convince him to pursue it as a viable career, if only until he could finance his own exodus from the city he where he was born. None of the odd jobs he had worked had even come close to the payday. After all, most of the people he knew could barely afford to scrape by, let alone pay a teenager for work.

Of course, actual fighting is different than simply outlasting an opponent, which mean that Edmund had to start training in real martial arts. Fortunately for him, there was a burgeoning underground community of street toughs also looking to break into the scene.

Outside the ring, Edmund remained a steadfast, earnest, and kind-hearted young man. Inside the ring, he transformed over time into a fiercesome opponent. Using his impressive, almost supernatural ability to recover from severe injuries, he learned from every opponent who faced him until he started winning more often than he lost.

As the fightcaster often said, “‘Azure Lightning’ delivers another shocking beatdown.”

This lovely animation came courtesy of Kenji_Blake, whose style reminds me a lot of the animation style and shading from Dragonball Z and other anime from that time, before digital really took over the scene. Edmund looks stunning in this light, and I couldn’t be happier with the end result.

Now that I’ve finally released Azure Lightning, I can start making use of all this art I have of Edmund as a fighter.