Whenever Ralus has time away from training for the next fight, he'll usually find himself hiking on trails. A somewhat nearby nature preserve dedicated to phoenixes is his park of choice. Even at a young age, Ral's been enamored with the mythical bird, and it's not solely due to their association with fire. The phoenix's ability to return from death itself has always been a sticking point for Ral's general outlook on life. Anything that gets you down in life is temporary, and whatever you do to bring your spirits up, whether it be self-help or with the help of friends or partners, is akin to being reborn from the ashes. For Ral, this usually translates to a big loss in the ring merely energizing him to train harder than ever before for a fiery rematch. A pollyanna through and through.

Here, a smoke-tailed phoenix has come to perch on Ral's arm. He's naturally well-equipped to handling the phoenix; his years of pyrokinesis has built up a fire resistance, and his scales prevent piercing from the bird's talons. It helps that this bird isn't fully grown. Unfortunately, Ral's signature vest ISN'T fireproof, unlike his fighter's gear, so when handling phoenixes, Ral'll go shirtless. Not that other park-goers mind.

Another digitized remastering of an old sketchbook piece, and possibly the last one. Like a lot of things from the book, the posing is directly based off of fighting game art, specifically Captain America's character art from Capcom's Marvel Super Heroes. Take a wild guess as to what animal the phoenix is filling in for. If you said bald eagle, well done, Einstein! As a fun fact, Ral started off as a phoenix-dragon hybrid, having accelerated healing, fiery wings that grew out of his back, and the ability to heal others with green embers. But the more I sat on the idea, the more I realized I was just making an animal-themed superhero and not merely a trained fighter that happened to be a dragon, so the hybrid thing was dropped. This piece in a way pays tribute to the original plans for my OC.