Canterlot Academy Trials

As it turns out, that very fort that Uziel had described was the exact same tower that Laurent had been held captive within. A small outpost shelter built at the edge of Abyssinia that was now abandoned and served as Odu’s base of operations. Known to the Abyssinian public as Fort Sith, it served as an outpost during times of war, but had been abandoned in the modern era as security measures improved.

Hence why Odu and his crew were able to make use of it without any surveillance from other Abyssinians. But first off, Uziel would have to make a detour to save her sister known as Ziwa.

“I’m going, mom. Don’t try and stop me,” she huffed as she stormed out of the cave with her club tied to her back. “Don’t follow me either,” she called out to the others as she left.

Unfortunately for her, that wasn’t about to fly.

The elder goblin would comfort Sariel with a pat on the head while making a request to the mercenaries of Block Sigma. “...Please make sure she--”

“Don’t worry,” Fang interrupted her, “I wouldn’t dream of allowing her to venture out there on her own when we have no clue what our enemy is capable of.” He then turned to the rest of his team, “Alright everyone, follow me. We need to make sure she doesn’t fall victim to this tiger man’s scheme.”

“It could very well be a trap,” Spear pointed out as they all left the underground cave, “Just want you to be aware.”

“You think that’ll stop me?” Rufus boasted, “I’m the King of Grappling. No risk is too great.”

“I agree,” Lee added, “We must stop the corruption before it spreads!”

With their minds made up, the group would rush out of the sandy desert and towards the Abyssinian border where the old fort was located.

Meanwhile, inside the fort’s dungeon…

“Nononono!” Laurent screamed hysterically while kicking his legs in a fit of fear as the carrier opened up. The timer had gone off, and the contents of the carrier were now revealed to him…

A jackal diamond dog with embers coming off of its fur. A textbook hellhound that had been captured and starved just for the sake of Odu’s self-serving desires. With no way out of this situation, it seemed as if Laurent was doomed to be eaten whole by the hound who saw nothing more than a panicking piece of prey.

Now resigned to his fate, Laurent sighed and shook his head as the tears fell from his face. “...just make it quick and go for my throat…”

PEW-PEW!

Two bullets fired from seemingly out of nowhere had lodged themselves in the kneecaps of the hellhound diamond dog, causing it to scream out in pain before it was quickly silenced by a blindingly fast slash to its throat that killed it instantly.

Laurent opened one eye, then the other, only to realize that he had been saved. “W-wha…?”

When he looked up, he saw that his savior was a monkey man with a pair of jade handguns held crossed. A rather tall individual at six feet, he had a golden-brown body of fur not unlike a macaque and wore a leather jacket over a red T-shirt underneath it. Due to his fur covering up the rest of his body, he wore nothing underneath save for a pair of gun holsters on each thigh.

“...You speak Western tongue?” the primate asked in a rather low, almost stoic tone.

“...y-yeah…wait…you’re from the East aren’t you?” Laurent muttered in disbelief and awe at his savior as the monk used a kunai-like dagger to cut the feline free from his bindings. The same one he had ended the canine's life with.“...oh thank you, man. I thought I was dead.”

“It’s fine,” the monk replied with a shake of his head as he glanced down at the now dead hound, holstering one of his green, jade-plated pistols. “Poor bastard was treated horribly. I had no choice but to put him out of his misery.”

Laurent stopped to think about just how starved the hound guy looked. His abdomen was sunken in and his ribcage was completely visible to the naked eye. “...when you put it like that, yeah. All the more reason why Mast---er…Odu needs to be taken down.”

The monkey man scoffed at such a thing as he twirled one of his daggers upon his finger. “I’m not interested in the moral quandaries. I’m simply looking to get my coin.”

That’s when Laurent realized who he was dealing with. A lone wolf--or rather lone monk--mercenary. The lynx boy’s tail wagged in excitement as he wondered the possibilities of how skilled the primate was.

“Ooh! That sounds exciting!” he mewled happily, then pleaded for his safety behind that same smile, “Please show me as we get outta here!”

The monk simply chuckled as he checked the ammo of one of his handguns. “...stick with me for now, kid. What’s your name?”

“Laurent, sir!”

“La…La…what?”

“Laurent…?” the lynx repeated, then sounded it out, “‘Laur’ and then your mother’s sister is…”

“...my aunt?” the monk answered out of confusion.

“Exactly,” the lynx boy held his paws apart from each other as he pronounced his name once more. “La-ur-ent.”

“La…Laurwant…Loowhat--gah,” the monkey man simply shook his head as he walked up to the door of the dungeon cells and took a peek with his gun at the ready, “Too hard. I’m just gonna call you Larry.”

Laurent’s ears went flat as he rolled his eyes. “...fair enough. And what’s your name?”

“Yín Bēi Zǐdàn,” he answered, giving his full name which caused Laurent to blink and stare at him for a moment as he followed his rescuer up to the door.

“...what does that mean in my language?”

“When translated, I found that you’d call it ‘silverback bullet’ in your tongue.”

Laurent snapped his fingers. “That’s it then. I’m calling you ‘Bullet’!”

The monk who would henceforth be referred to as ‘Bullet’ simply rolled his eyes. “Call me whatever you like. Just stay close if you want to live.”

And with that, Bullet shot the lock off of the dungeon door, and led Laurent through the run-down cobblestone halls. At first, they met no resistance…until they reached the next floor above them where multiple Abyssinians that worked with Odu were stationed and watching over the tower with weapons of their own.

“Lā shǐ…” Bullet huffed to himself as he took one last look at how much ammo he had, “Outnumbered. I’ll have to make sure these shots count. Get down and stay down.”

Laurent did as he asked, hiding beneath the wooden stairwell…with a big dumb grin on his face as he peeked out over it to watch the primate in action. ‘...this is so cool!’