The morning air inside Jimmy's golden dome shimmered with a strange humidity, carrying a heaviness Danny couldn't explain. The training grounds were unusually quiet—no stone dragons rumbling, no gravity chambers whirring, no Sedge Hat humming off-tune classics.
Even Master Oro seemed… tense.
Danny wiped sweat from his brow as he sheathed his katana. Jake and Swift stood beside him, panting from another brutal session of humanoid-dragon combat.
Jake flopped onto the grass. "Oro… dude… respect, but my arms are pretty sure they're going to fall off."
Oro raised an eyebrow. "Then grow new ones."
Jake blinked. "What?"
"Dragons regenerate quickly. Push limits. Recover. Repeat."
Jake groaned and collapsed dramatically. "I… regress."
Swift stood straighter but breathed heavily. "Master…I sense something off today."
Oro didn't deny it.
"Yes. Something is… shifting."
Danny felt it too—a strange pressure buzzing against the edges of his aura. It made his skin tingle.
"What is it?" he asked.
Before Oro could answer, the sky above the dome flickered.
Not with Bones' green energy.
Not with a cosmic rift.
But with something darker.
Something burning.
A pulse.
A tremor.
A presence.
And far away—so far Danny couldn't pinpoint it—something howled.
Jake jolted upright. "Uh… was that…?"
Swift's silver eyes darkened. "That was no dragon."
Master Oro's expression hardened. He looked toward the sky with something resembling fear.
Danny swallowed.
"Oro… what was that?"
The master lifted a hand and whispered,
"A predator."
Jimmy's PanicIn Buddies HQ, a dozen alarms blared across the Command Convergence Chamber. Monitors flickered with violet and red warnings, beams of dimensional data crashing into each other like chaotic waves.
Jimmy burst into the room, nearly spilling his coffee as he skidded to the main console.
"Status report!"
A terrified clerk pointed to a monitor displaying a massive burning silhouette crossing into the multiverse.
"Sir… something breached the neutral pathways."
Jimmy's face drained of color.
"Oh, sweet cosmology no…"
He zoomed in.
A monstrous shape with burning black fur.
Seven feet tall.
Wings of flame.
Wolf-human hybrid.
Followed by an entire pack of were-creatures stepping out of an unstable rift.
A chaos storm formed around them.
Jimmy slammed a fist into the console.
"That's the Wolf King! Magic Kid actually did it! He brought him HERE?!"
The clerk stuttered, "What do we—what do we DO, sir?!"
Jimmy's eyes darted frantically.
"Nobody—and I mean NOBODY—let Danny or the dragons near this feed. Danny is already resonating at dangerous levels. Contact Oro now. Tell him—tell him—"
Jimmy paused.
The Wolf King lifted his head.
Sniffed the cosmic wind.
And growled.
Jimmy whispered,
"Oh no…
He can smell dragon blood across realities."
The clerk gasped.
"He's tracking Danny?!"
Jimmy shook his head violently.
"Not yet. There's still distance between them. But the Wolf King knows something awakened—something powerful."
He took a deep breath.
"Send all available Buddies to block his path. Stall him until the tournament. If he meets Danny NOW—"
His voice broke slightly.
"—he will tear the kid apart before he even grows into his potential."
Jimmy's face hardened.
"And tell them to watch for Magic Kid. That brat thrives on chaos."
The monitors crackled violently.
And Jimmy whispered:
"The universe is about to get messy."
The Dragon Dojo TruthBack under the dome, the tension lingered like static.
Swift approached Master Oro.
"Master… this feeling… it's not Bones. It's something else."
"Correct," Oro said.
Jake gulped. "Uh… is that good or bad?"
"Terrifying," Oro replied calmly.
Danny stepped forward. "Master, if something is coming, we need to be ready. Tell us everything."
Oro hesitated.
Which scared Danny more than any roar.
Finally, Oro turned to them and spoke with a solemn weight in his voice:
"There is something you must know. Something all dragons eventually face."
Danny, Swift, and Jake exchanged looks.
Oro continued.
"Every warrior who trains in any Dragon Dojo—Golden, Silver, or Bronze—eventually joins the Buddies."
Jake blinked. "Wait, WHAT?"
Swift stiffened. "That's… destiny."
Danny frowned. "Join… the Buddies? All of us?"
Oro nodded.
"The dragon path is not just martial; it is cosmic. Dragons hold power that shapes realities. If left unaligned with greater purpose, dragons distort fate. So the universe itself nudges you toward the Buddies—where dragons learn control and protect balance."
Jake whispered, "So we're gonna be… like Jimmy?"
Oro winced. "Preferably not."
Danny looked down at his hands. "So we don't have a choice."
Oro placed a gentle hand on Danny's shoulder.
"You have choices.
But destiny has momentum."
Jake frowned deeply.
Swift looked troubled.
Danny felt… confused.
But before he could process it—
Pain tore through his chest.
Danny's Resonance AwakensA burst of golden fire erupted around him, lifting him off the ground. Swift stumbled back. Jake shielded his face. Sedge Hat appeared out of nowhere, eyes wide for once.
"Oh ho… it begins!"
Master Oro's face hardened.
Danny hovered, body limned in blinding golden light. His aura roared like a sun waking from slumber.
Ancient voices whispered in languages lost before worlds were born.
Jake trembled.
"Th-that's… not normal."
Swift's silver aura flickered weakly beside Danny's radiance.
Master Oro whispered,
"He resonates.
With the Primordial Golden Dragons."
Danny seemed consumed by visions—cosmic skies, golden serpents coiling through newborn universes, flames forging stars, ancient dragon roars that made creation itself tremble.
Danny gasped for air.
"I… I can hear them—"
Oro steadied him.
"Do not fear the voices.
They are your ancestors."
Danny's golden fire burned brighter.
Swift stared in awe—and fear.
"He's evolving too fast…"
Jake swallowed hard.
"Dude… you're glowing like a supernova."
Danny slowly lowered to the ground, fire fading back into his skin.
He knelt.
Panting.
Terrified.
But alive.
"I… I'm okay."
Master Oro nodded, though concern flickered briefly in his eyes.
"You have taken your first step into ancient power, Danny Chan. But power attracts predators."
He looked to the horizon.
Danny did too.
He felt… something.
Far away.
Something hunting.
Something hungry.
Something that sensed his evolution.
Danny whispered:
"Something's watching."
Swift shivered.
Jake tensed.
Oro's jaw tightened.
"Not watching you," Oro said softly.
"Not yet."
He looked Danny dead in the eyes.
"But aware of you."
Oro placed a hand on his sword.
"A creature that devours chaos.
A creature that seeks to kill Bones.
A creature that wants dragon blood."
Danny felt the air go cold.
Jake whispered, "Master… what creature?"
Oro answered with dread in his voice.
"The Wolf King."
Danny blinked.
"But he's not here."
"No," Oro said.
"And he must not be."
He turned to the others.
"You three MUST grow stronger before the tournament. If the Wolf King challenges you now—you will die."
Danny swallowed.
"When do we face him?"
Oro closed his eyes.
"In the arena."
Swift stepped back.
Jake paled.
Danny closed his fist and whispered:
"Then we'll be ready."
Oro nodded.
"You must be."
Far across the multiverse, inside a chaos storm, the Wolf King sniffed the cosmic winds—catching a faint taste of ancient dragon resonance.
A cruel smile stretched across his monstrous face.
"Soon…"