The Masked Knight is a Video Game idea created by General Tommy. The story itself is currently being uploaded on his DeviantArt profile (though lately, he hasn't updated in about a year, though he claims that he is busy working on the backstory before he moves onto developing the plot further), but he has decided against making it an actual book.
The story revolves around the titular "Masked Knight" General Tommy (the author is terrible with names, so they can be extremely uncreative at times. Thankfully, this guy isn't an Author Avatar, or so he says), wandering around the currently unnamed world as a mercenary-for-hire. During this wandering, an entire war is being waged, between the Elves, Humans, Gnomes, and Halflings on one side, and Orcs on the other (strangely, the Dwarves prefer to stay out of the conflict). The war had been going on for Over Nine Thousand years (specifically, 9002 as of the first part), and this mercenary prefers to stay out of the conflict.
The story picks up during his seventh year as a mercenary, as he heads into The Good Kingdom of Lebanon (though this has nothing to do with the actual Lebanon, it's more of a standard European kingdom) to get some more work. His first contract involved rescuing the local Princess, Leola, from Damsel an Elven wizard and a Minotaur. This kidnapping would be treated as a big thing in most other kingdoms, but in Lebanon, it's pretty much a fact of life (Leola gets kidnapped three times every year, at the minimum). As soon as Tommy rescued Leola, on the way back, Leola takes of the metal mask that Tommy always wears, Revealing that Tommy is, in fact, an Orc. The rest of the first story involves Tommy doing various odd jobs for the kingdom (most of which involves killing something eventually), while at the same time training Leola into becoming an Action Girl (specifically, a Pretty Princess Powerhouse, though not exactly a Lady of War) and continually dodging Ylthorin the Elf. Ylthorin was actually an Elven Commando involved in the Elf/Orc war, but was disgraced after Tommy and a small team of Orc Commandos defeated him and his group utterly, leaving Ylthorin as the only survivor. This, combined with the various disgraces given to Ylthorin afterwords, earned him PTSD as he picked up his blades and swore to kill Tommy once and for all in a Revenge Plot. In the end, Ylthorin ends up impaled on Leola's borrowed sword after Tommy gets banished, and Leola runs away with Tommy to become a mercenary with him.
The second story has been started, and is technically still under development (the author admitted that he wanted all the details down first, as he had a tendency to mix up details due to writing it on the fly a lot). Set one year after the first story, this story details Tommy and Leola's journey into the kingdom of Osaka, an obvious copy of feudal Japan, right down to mannerisms and equipment. King Jakgo, Leola's father, has sicced bounty hunters on Tommy, blaming him for his daughter's "kidnapping" and wanting her back away from the "disgusting Orc". By this time, Leola has become a full-fledged Action Girl, doing battle right next to Tommy's side and loving every minute of it (the author admits that Leola has a bit of a Blood Knight streak in her).
The story details more odd jobs, as the duo draw in numerous allies to fight in the Elf/Orc war, and more mercenaries into their team. New to the team is Karin the demon, Rich the 9-tailed Kitsune (who has a nasty habit of Breaking the Fourth Wall quite often), and Nigo the Orc officer. The author says that he will continue updating as soon as he's got the backstory down, and he most definitely is not that lazy.
This work contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Practically every single female in the series is an action girl (or at least those of importance).
- The author admits that he enjoys Action Girls.
- Applied Phlebotinum [[supersecretspoiler:Organic Adamantine, which is what constructs Orcish bones. Created from a custom spell, and makes very hard bones.]]
- A Wizard Did It: Generally, if something makes no sense, expect the author to state the Karin is responsible at some point or another (especially if the confusion is biological in nature).
- Badass Normal: Most of the team don't use magic, or cannot. Yet they are still able to mop the floor with their enemies.
- Battle Couple: Despite denials by both Tommy and Leola, there is quite a bit of UST between the two. Leola, at least, admits that she may have feelings for Tommy. Tommy also doesn't take kindly to threats to Leola, though he states it is because she's a princess and he doesn't want to dig a deeper grave involving his relationship with her father.
- BFS: Karin's sword. Normally, it's about 5' 11", but when Karin reveals her true form, it's about 10+ feet long. She is able to lift the sword with one hand (attributing it to "demon conjured swords are lighter than they look").
- Blood Knight: Leola again. She even admits in the first story that she wants to know how to fight (supposedly to fend off the next attacker, but judging by the second story, where she's enjoying combat a lot, it's a lot more obvious that she just enjoys fighting)
- Karin too, even saying that she fights off boredom by randomly fighting a bunch of thugs in her first appearance, and shows obvious disappointment when Tommy and Leola get to them first.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Rich does this a lot, mostly by accident, or whenever it makes a good joke.
- According to the writer, all nine-tailed Kitsune are able to do that. Rich is just the one that joined the team.
- Cool Sword: While not precisely on the level of awesome as most swords, the main characters tend to wield different then usual swords.
- Tommy dual-wields a hand-and-a-half sword and a short sword. They both have engravings in them. The first has an engraving of waves (called the "Blade of Water"), and the second has a carving of clouds (called the "Blade of the Sky"). He calls this set "Blades of the Storm". However, they are unenchanted, making the name purely decorative.
- Leola wields the "Blade of Fire". Like Tommy's, it has an engraving of flames in it, but it is unenchanted as well (she also has the "Shield of the Mountain, which has a picture of a mountain on it, and she calls the two of them the "Combo of the Volcano").
- Karin wields a BFS demonic sword (unnamed, apparently) that happens to be jet-black with multiple runes that light up when she's about to cast a spell, and cannot be picked up by anyone else.
- For the record, Karin stands at about 5' 11", and the sword is about as big as she is. When she shapeshifts into her true form, she's described of as standing as tall as two men, and her sword is also as large as she is. That would make the blade at about 10+ feet long. BFS indeed.
- Crazy Is Cpp;: Lance. This guy literally makes his entrance to the series by jumping through a window, Goomba Stomping the heads of two guards, clapping his hands above his head, then shifting his head from side to side while saying, "Dy-no-MYTE!" and then just running off.
- Deadpan Snarker: The entire main team drops into deadpan mode at least once or twice. Tommy and Leola do it the most, and Rich adds in Breaking The Fouth Wall to it.
- Dynamic Entry: Lance enjoys these, see
Crazy Is Cool. - Inverse Ninja Law: It's quite noticeable when a Battle Couple can take on about a dozen or more enemies at once. Even more noticeable in the first story where Tommy routinely takes down dozens of enemies by himself. Conversely, Ylthorin is usually treated as a major threat each time.
- {Mithril}
- Pretty Princess Powerhouse: Leola, full stop. The first story she was more Damsel in Distress with some Leeroy Jenkins tendencies, but as of the second story, she manages to win when heavily outnumbered by fighting alongside Tommy.
- Recurring Boss: Ylthorin likes to drop in a lot. He's quite stubborn.
- Shipper on Deck: Karin makes a couple of Ship Tease moments between Tommy and Leola (at least, in future chapters), which tends to result in a bit of annoyance from the two.
- Sliding Scale Of Seriousness Vs Sillyness: All over the damn place. This is a story where there's a huge, epic war going on, and you've got Lance.
- Speak of the Devil: If you ever bring up Bison's name and that he wants to Take Over the World, expect him to pop out of nowhere with an "OF COURSE!"
- This befits his role as a Shout-Out to Bison of Street Fighter, as well as the meme started by the Nostalgic Critic.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Bison. He just shows up out of nowhere when his name and the fact that he wants to Take Over the World are mentioned within the same sentence, gives an "OF COURSE!", and just kinda stands there explaining his next phase of his plan before heading off.
- The Guards Must Be Crazy: They have to be, if Leola gets kidnapped three times a year at the minimum. Leola even admits that despite all of the kidnappings, Jakgo doesn't even bother upgrading security once.
- {Unobtanium}: Adamantine. It's about 4 times as heavy as steel (making it nearly impossible for most humans to wear), but is damn near impenetrable. Naturally, Orcs prefer to use this armor whenever possible.
