The Nightdragon
#1 - Enter the NightDragon
Nocturnity, known as the City on the Edge of Night, is a northern California city on the Pacific coastline that thrives in the 21st Century. It is the home of a dual military base and corporations on the cutting edge of technology and genetics, as well as being a burgeoning gambling and resort hotspot. But it has also become the abode and territory of various criminal organizations and factions, whose intents are to profit by any unscrupulous means necessary.
Fortunately, the city has gained a new resident: a vigilante known as the NightDragon. He is a man trained in the martial arts, endowed with special mystical abilities, and an agent of a global agency known as AEGIS.
While the general public applauds their new mystery man, not everyone appreciates his heroic deeds, especially the task force assigned to catch him. When a trio of international thieves, specializing in corporate espionage and assassination, absconds with a secret military project, only the NightDragon is capable of standing in their way. But can even he truly stop them or will he find himself outwitted and outmatched?
Enter a novel of martial arts fiction rife with amazing action and dazzling displays of kung fu! Enter the dawning of a new superhero! Enter the NightDragon!
Excerpt
At the sound of Chiang’s yelp, the thug with the two tanto blades espied Chen and dashed at him. Sonya pushed herself up onto her hands to watch as Chen artfully leaned from side to side as he evaded the gang member’s slashing knives. The tanto wielder swiped his blades towards each other in an attempt to slice Chen’s neck on either side. The NightDragon lunged forward onto his right foot as he brought his hands, palms up, from his stomach up the centerline of his chest and into outward arcs to strike the insides of the thug’s wrists. Then his hands shot forward in a blinding vertical circle, one fist falling over the other in a continuous successive motion and pummeled the thug in the chest, throat, and face. Chen then stepped through with a left front kick to the gangster’s chest. The tanto blades scattered across the gym floor as the man flew backwards and crashed into a weight bench near the western wall. He grunted heavily on impact, and the bar holding one hundred and fifty pounds smashed onto him as he and the bench toppled to the floor.
Sonya saw Chiang out of the corner of her eye as he pulled his legs beneath himself and got to his knees, but her focus remained on the NightDragon. She couldn’t believe she was actually seeing him in action.
The two staff wielders charged Chen, twirling their poles horizontally as one attacked at his legs and the other at his head. Chen dipped and spun as he launched himself off of his left foot into a barrel roll through the air in the space between the staff assaults. He landed in the thick patch of darkness and seemed to sink into the floor and disappear again. The men reversed their direction and swung the poles around vertically to strike the floor where he had landed. When they realized he wasn’t there, they spread out and moved slowly toward the front of the gym, searching for him.
Sonya blinked a couple of times and strained her eyes to see, but she couldn’t tell where the NightDragon had gone. As low as she was to the floor, she should have been able to detect in which direction he had moved, and she knew he hadn’t gotten out of striking range of the poles. He seemed to have literally sunk into the pool of shadow. She glanced at Chiang to see he had almost gained his feet. She quickly regained her own and leaped at him. He was still doubled over, and she caught him in the face with a left knee strike. His head snapped up, and she hit him with a right cross. He cursed as he fell back and quickly rolled over to his hands and knees. She dove on top of him, grabbed his left arm, and tried to pull it up behind his back.