Meanwhile, somewhere in America, a Grey Wolf was doing rigorous fight training in an abandoned warehouse just outside his mansion. This Grey Wolf was Nicholas Samuels, Ida’s best friend. Nick’s family was very rich, and were able to buy out the warehouse so their son could turn it into a fighting dojo. Nick, like Ida, cared a lot about fighting. It was his passion. He loved the idea of growing stronger, and wanted to continue training so that he could achieve that goal. These goals, however, were always flexible. Every time he got to his desired strength, he’d bump it up to a new goal, and then up it once more when that goal was achieved, so on and so forth. He just loved fighting and training. After all, it was his and Ida’s sensei, Yammut, who taught them that any goal could be achieved as long as you worked hard enough. Yammut was so wise, he was thought to be a Tennin, a creature in Japanese folklore similar to an angel. Unfortunately, Yammut ended up taking most of his techniques to his grave. Supposedly, he was digested and murdered at the hands of his Oni brother, Chamots, who also digested their own master, Bushi Zheno. Although Chamots was overcome by the Shoka Suru Ishi, the dark side of Shokaken, Bushi Zheno was still glad to die at the hands of one of his disciples, because it meant they finally knew enough about Shokaken to surpass him. Ida and Nick still mourned the loss of their Sensei to this day.
 
Nick is the only heir to the Samuels fortune. The Samuels family owns a chain of Hotels and Resorts around the world that has made them very rich wolves. They also donate to charity quite frequently. Nick isn’t spoiled, though. Thanks to his training and teachings from Yammut, he is quite disciplined. When he was young, his father sent him to Japan to train under Yammut, whom his father knew very well. Nick was quite a big eater at home, and thus, his father felt he’d have no problem learning the vore-based martial art; Shokaken. There, at Yammut’s dojo, he met Ida for the first time! They spoke to each other, shared their interests, and found out they had a lot in common, and thus became great friends. Nick and Ida trained with each other for 12 years before Yammut decided they’d mastered Shokaken, and elected they were free to leave his dojo, if they so chose. Ida traveled across Japan, continuing his training, and getting into fights with other Preds along the way. Meanwhile, Nick went back to the US, so he could reunite with his family. During the time that he trained, he met a female wolf named Brittney, spelled with an E, whom quickly became his girlfriend. However, things went sour between them, and they broke up. Later, after Nick returned to America, he met another wolf, also named Brittany! This Brittany, however, had her name spelled with an A. She was a much better girlfriend, and completely unlike Brittney with an E. Brittney with an E, and Nick were a lot alike, but perhaps they were too alike. They got into frequent arguments, which ultimately led to their breakup. Luckily, neither of them got eaten by the other. Brittany with an A on the other paw, was a good listener, and had a nice, calm personality to contrast with Nick’s wild, eccentric, and easily excitable personality (Considering Ida was also a nice, calm guy, maybe that was also the reason they got along so well). Brittany loved Nick not for his strength, but because he had a passion for getting stronger. Anyone with that level of determination, she knew would make a great boyfriend.
 
Over the years, Nick had let himself get distracted by his frequent dates with Brittany, that he’d not only neglected his fight training rituals, but had also failed to write Ida back a letter after all the ones Ida sent him. In fact, he was currently in his dojo so he could get back into the rhythm of doing his daily fight training. Today, his training consisted of breaking wooden boards. During his years with Yammut, these boards would often be very thin and easy to shatter, but as his training progressed, Yammut would get thicker boards with more plys. Nowadays, Nick used boards with several plys, which were much harder to break than the boards of his youth. He wouldn’t have it any other way though. After all, how was he to get stronger without challenge? Normally, he would swallow a large medicine ball or kettlebell to use as weight training, but since it’s been so long, he elected not to use one. Something that most people fail to understand is that the art of board-breaking isn’t all punching and kicking with pure strength. There is strategy involved, as well as science, and the same applies to real fighting. You must take into account pressure, surface area, length of the board, the location of your paw on the board, etc. It may look simple, but it is much more complicated than seen at first glance. This board breaking continued for some time, until someone came into the dojo completely unnoticed. “Hey, old friend! Long time no see!” He said. Nick recognised that voice. He turned around to see his suspicions of who it might be were correct. “Lee!” Nick replied.
 
Lee Chan is a Large Indian Civet, a race commonly found in South and Southeast Asia, especially Hong Kong, China, where Lee is from. Lee is actually a very famous movie star in Hong Kong. Most of the films he’s in are action movies, and nearly all of them involve vore. He even invented his own vore-based martial art, called Sohwa Wi Do, or “The Way of the Digesting Stomach”. He was even in a movie with Von Jawed Dan Camm! He trained in various martial arts at a young age, from kung fu, to karate, to Tae Kwon Do. However, despite disciplinary teachings, he still had a short temper, and would eat anyone who pissed him off. He’d let them out later, not wanting to murder anyone, but one day, it caught the attention of a film director, who took interest not only in the fact he was a Pred, but his fighting skills as well. Lee Chan’s fate was set from that day forward, and he went to star in several fighting and martial arts movies from then on. He was quite famous in Hong Kong, but not so much in America, even despite the fact he did his own dubbing. Aside from his movie career, he also participated in fighting tournaments. He found real fights were much better than the staged, choreographed fights he did in his movies. Illegal fighting was also how he got his start. In his teens, he’d been participating in underground paw fights for fun, and would often eat his opponents after winning (Again, letting them out before digestion). One day however, Lee won a fight against a member of a Predator gang in his area. This fighter was the best in that particular fighting arena, and had an impressive winning streak with 0 losses. Lee had no idea he was a gang member, and thus thought nothing of it after letting him out. When the gang member reconvened with his fellow gang-mates, he told them all about what had transpired, and how his winning streak was ended.
 
Walking back home, Lee ended up getting into an unwanted fight with this gang, and lost. Had he fought each member individually, he might have won, but if there’s one thing gangs are known for, it’s “ganging up” on people. He would’ve gotten eaten right then and there as the fight ended, but that was when the Police showed up. The gang members let go of Lee and fled, managing to get away in time. Police found Lee very beat up and bloodied, and took him to his parents, who were shocked to see him beat up like this. Since they lived in a bad neighborhood at the time, Lee’s parents knew these fights would be difficult for their son to avoid. As a result, they took him to a local martial arts dojo so he could learn how to defend himself, if an attack like this ever occurred again. Lee’s family was also very poor, but they managed to pull through enough to pay Lee’s tuition fees for the martial arts classes. Lee’s teacher always tried his best to discourage vore, keep his students out of fights involving gangs, and tried to direct them to officially sanctioned competitions with special regulations in place to insure no one would get too injured. Lee’s love for the tournament scene also spawned from these experiences as well. Lee went on to win several of these official fights, and even won his high school boxing tournament! Some of these tournaments offered cash prizes, which really helped out his poor family. His street fighting wouldn’t end though. In fact, as time went on, they’d become more frequent. When he was 17, he ended up unknowingly fighting against the son of the owner of an infamous Hong Kong crime syndicate, loosely connected to Master Sarthul’s syndicate. Just before Lee could eat him, they were both caught by police, and Lee was taken back to his home, let off with a warning. Police informed him that if they caught him in another fight like this, let alone ate somebody again, he’d be put in jail. The next day, the police came to their doors to inform them of the origin of the boy, and how he was the son of a well-known criminal. Worried for his life, Lee’s parents suggested he flee to America using the money he won from previous fighting tournaments to buy a plane ticket. He went through with the idea, staying with his sister, who was also in America at that time. English was a required class back when he was in elementary school, so since he already knew the language, he had no issues adjusting to his new life. Finally moving on from illegal fighting, he made his living as a Martial Arts instructor, and occasionally worked in his sister’s chinese restaurant as a busboy. After a few years in America, he found out on the news that the crime boss, whose son he fought back in Hong Kong, was finally behind bars, meaning it was now safe to return to his family! He flew back to Hong Kong, where he reunited with his family, and also found some more fighting tournaments to participate in. He entered one where vore was allowed, his first movie director found him at that tournament, and the rest, as they say, is history.
 
 
 
 
Nick met Lee at his sister’s restaurant. Lee was wiping down tables, and Nick was headed back to the buffet area to get another bowl of wonton soup. Lee bumped into Nick as they crossed paths, and Lee reflexively went to throw a punch, which Nick saw coming and dodged. Lee apologized profusely for almost punching Nick, to which Nick told him not to worry about it. They hit it off for a bit, during which Nick told Lee he was a master of Shokaken, and Lee invited Nick to come by his dojo the next day. They’ve been friends since. Nick also got quite stuffed on soups, sushis, mongolian barbeque, seafood, chicken, etc., but that’s a different story. “Some level of training you’re doing!” said Lee. “I’m getting tired just watchin’ ya! Why don’t you take a break and have a drink with me?” Nick chuckled a bit. “I suppose it IS time for a break.” He replied. Lee sat down while Nick went to some shelves he kept alcohol on. “What do you want?” he asked. “I got whisky, sake, there’s beer in the mini-fridge too.” “I guess I’ll take a beer.” Lee answered. He didn’t normally drink, but since it’s been so long since they last saw each other, he figured now would be a special occasion. Nick grabbed two bottles of beer, and a bottle opener fridge magnet that was stuck to the mini-fridges door. “So how's the movie business been?” Nick asked, opening his bottle and passing the bottle opener to his friend. “It’s been good!” Lee said, opening his bottle. “It gets very hard though. A lot of people don’t realize just how tough an actor’s career can be.” “I get that.” replied Nick. “So what brings you here?”
 
 
 
 
“Have you heard of the World Vorrior Tournament?”
 
“I have not! What is it?”
 
“It’s an invitational tournament consisting of the world’s best Preds duking it out on a hidden island. Apparently, we’ve both been invited.”
 
Lee brandished two envelopes, one labeled “Lee”, the other labeled “Nick”.
 
“These arrived at my sister’s restaurant.” Lee continued. “She called me and told me about it as I was in the middle of teaching a student, so I flew out here to discuss it with her over a cup of tea. She then told me that YOUR letter had ALSO been delivered to the restaurant, so I came here so WE could meet up and talk about it.”
 
Nick grabbed his envelope. “How come I’m only just hearing of this?”
 
“Apparently, this is the first time this tournament will be held. I don’t know if it’ll be annual, semi-annual, every 2 years, 3 years, 4,5, or what. All I know is that this’ll be the first.”
 
“Interesting. So it’s a fighting tournament that allows other fighters to vore one another.” “That’s not a verb, but yes.”
 
“How will they prevent fighters from digesting each other?”
 
“Supposedly, they have something in place to prevent that from happening. What it is though, I have no idea. Either way, if we get to eat our opponents, it seems like it’ll be fun!”
 
“What’s the prize for winning?”
 
“You mean apart from becoming known as the #1 Pred in the world? Haha! Just kidding. To be honest, I don’t really know. I believe there’s money involved though.”
 
“I don’t know. I’m already the heir to the Samuel’s fortune. Cash prizes are great and all, but they aren’t really all that impressive when you’re already a millionaire.”
 
“Well, don’t be mad at me, but I’ve already read your letter, and it seems like they’re inviting Ida too!”
 
“Ida!? Oh man! I haven’t seen him in forever! I just got a letter in the mail from him this morning. I should really write him back. I’ve just been so busy with Brittany, that I kept putting it off.”
 
“Well maybe now’s the time to do so. Perhaps you should mention the tournament in your letter to him!”
 
“I just might. Anyway, I should probably get back to training. That’s another thing I’ve been putting off to be with Brittany.”
 
“Board breaking? You don’t have like a dummy, or punching bag to fight against?”
 
“I just like breaking boards!”
 
“It’s good training, but a board doesn’t hit back. How’s about fighting me instead?”
 
“Alright, but don’t get too cocky!”
 
 
 
 
Nick and Lee got up, put their drinks down, and stood opposite each other in the dojo. They assumed their fighting stances. “Ready?” Lee asked. “Born ready!” Nick confirmed. Lee flew towards him, paw at the ready, which Nick blocked with his arm. Lee performed several other attacks, all of which Nick skillfully blocked. “Guruguruken!” Nick shouted. He launched a green ball of energy from the pads of his paws, which hit Lee directly on the chest. The attack felt like acid had been dripped on him. In retaliation, Lee kicked his hind leg skyward at such a high speed that it almost, in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, seemed to have caught fire from the friction of air molecules rubbing against it. His body spiraled in a corkscrew as he rose off the ground, hitting Nick with his leg several times. Nick crouched in preparation for his next attack. When Lee came close enough, Nick hit him with one of his signature moves, the Hoshokushanoken, also known as the Predator’s Fist. Lee flew backward, but managed to land on his back paws. Lee lept at Nick, and turned sideways mid-air, kicking his legs out as he spun. His legs twisted through the air like propeller blades, each leg hitting Nick once, first the left leg, then the right. Nick felt a bit weak and out of breath already. He began to punch and kick Lee, getting some good hits in, until Lee jabbed him, punched him in the gut, and hit him in the chest with the back of his paw. Nick was now significantly weak from the fight. Taking advantage, Lee grabbed him, and still holding onto him, flipped forward, and pulled him into his maw once he was behind him. Nick was too weak to be able to do anything, and thus, was consumed whole by Lee. Lee rubbed the side of his now full gut with his right paw. “My my! You ARE out of practice!” Lee taunted. “I was kind of expecting you to last at least another minute or so!” “Yeah, just goes to show how long it’s been.” Nick said, within the confines of Lee’s gut. Nick placed a paw on Lee’s stomach wall, which made a very slight pawprint-shaped impression on the outside of his belly. Nick also noticed a small pool of liquid at the bottom of Lee’s stomach. The pool was small enough that it didn’t come into contact with Nick’s clothing. “You’re not that much of a heavy drinker, are you?” Nick said, noting the puddle to be some of the beer he gave him. “Not really.” Lee replied, still rubbing his gut. “In fact, I haven’t really had alcohol in a long while. I don’t drink it because it weakens my body. Not very good for fighting.” “I get that.” Nick said. “That’s why I only drink when I know I won’t be fighting or training. Any other time though, I like to party!” “That’s understandable.” Lee responded. Lee took a few minutes to enjoy NIck inside his stomach, before eventually letting him out. He wasn’t in there that long, so he was still pretty dry. “Guess I’m really gonna have to start working hard again if I wanna win this ‘World Vorrior Tournament’!” Nick said. “Definitely!” Lee confirmed. “And I hope to see you there!”
 
 
 
 
“Once it’s over though, I’m gonna treat Brittany to something nice and romantic. Maybe we’ll go to the beach together. Something like that.”
 
“That doesn’t sound like a bad idea! And hey, while you’re training, now might be a good time to write Ida back!”
 
“I agree. I think I’ll do that now, actually!”
 
“Great! Well, it was good sparring with you again! I’ll see you at the tournament!”
 
“See you at the tournament!”
 
 
 
 
Lee left, and Nick pulled out some paper to begin working on a reply. Just as he was about to write though, he took another look at the invitation, and saw something a bit strange. He took a closer look, and gasped!
 
 
 
 
Right there, in the bottom corner of the invite, was the symbol used for Master Sarthul’s criminal organization.