| “ | The Emperor is still alive? Where? Relaxing while his people die for the Dynasty? The war will end soon and I'll become Emperor. Because I spill blood on the battlefield for the Dynasty's freedom. Not your father. And not you... | ” |
| – Deng Rao claiming his right to the throne. | ||
Deng Rao is an antagonist from Shadow Fight 3. He is met in Chapter I: Legion. Deng Rao is the warlord of Dynasty, who has a dream of tumbling the Emperor from his throne.
Storyline[]
June's Adventure: Know Your Enemy[]
June decides that they should talk to Deng Rao about the Legionary bandits as he respects her, unlike other sycophants in the palace. Deng Rao had offered her to participate in the raid before so she is sure he will help them. June and Kibo head to the palace to see Emperor and Deng Rao conversing. Deng Rao informs Emperor that their village is saved but the bandits have escaped and they did not go after them as per his orders, while June pleads with her father to do something to protect their people as the situation is getting out of hand. Emperor understands his daughter's resentment but warns her that they will lose a lot of their people if they take even one careless step. Their truce with the Legion has already cost them dearly. Deng Rao comes up with an idea. He requests Emperor to allow him to take a small squad and conduct reconnaissance so that they at least understand what they are dealing with. Emperor accepts his request as a small squad is not too harmful but does not allow June to be a part of it and orders her to stay in the palace. Deng Rao explains to him that June's combat skills of the same level as those of a Guardian Dragon and he can prove it. He spars with June to show the Emperor her combat skills. The two fight and Deng Rao is defeated. Deng Rao commends her fighting skills and offers the Emperor a compromise. Deng Rao tells him that the princess, June will go with them but will not participate in the raid mission itself. Instead, she will visit the affected villages to comfort the people there. Emperor is now convinced that June is capable of such a task and lets her go but threatens Deng Rao that he will kill him if he even lets a hair fall from June's head. June and Kibo then go to the outskirts of the Dynasty's capital, where Deng Rao is yet to present his plan.
June then sees the spy and fights him and takes him down. Deng Rao commends her victory. They capture him and Deng Rao says that his people will quick get the information they need from this traitor and takes him to his people. Later, Deng Rao returns and informs June and Kibo that they have extracted the location of their camp from the captured spy but they must be quick, otherwise they will lose them. Kibo is glad that they have finally done something without convincing June's father. Deng Rao then asks if he can trust June with distracting the bandits while his people get close to the camp. Kibo responds first and says that Legionaries cannot hearing anything other than themselves yelling and they can move with almost no sound. June pleads with Kibo to not argue with an experienced officer. She asks Deng Rao to forget about her father's nonsense threats and tells him that she can take care of herself. Kibo still fears the Emperor. Kibo then says to June that she is the only person in the whole Dynasty who can consider Emperor's threats nonsense. She asks Deng Rao not to worry, as she will keep their princess safe. Deng Rao then presents his plan. June and Kibo will infiltrate the camp and cause a commotion, while his squad will quickly attack them from behind. June and Kibo proceed to the camp to carry out Deng Rao's orders.
Chapter I: Legion[]
Deng Rao initiates an attack to the Legion by attacking the Bamboo Fort. After he is punished by the player, Sarge warns him that they will kill ten Dynastians for each fallen Legionary and Deng Rao must deliver this message to their Emperor. Later, it is revealed that the invasion was Deng Rao's plan all along; the Dynasty never had the same intention at all.
Chapter IV: Consequences[]
Deng Rao reappears along with the Ambassador to meet with the leader of the Insusceptibles. He brought an assassin from the Order of the Damned which shocked June as it was dismissed by her father. He also badmouths June and the Emperor after his assassin is defeated, hoping to be the new emperor. Once the leader of Insusceptibles shows himself, however, he has no choice but to leave.
Chapter VI: Heart of the Legion[]
Deng Rao initiates yet another invasion to the Legion Fortress, this time using the help of the Dynastian prisoners and the Legion soldiers who have been bribed, in addition to his own army. Thankfully, Sarge knows and plans to stop this. With the help from the player, Marcus, and Itu, they thwart the invasion. Sarge then captures him and throws him in the prison, hoping that this will teach him a lesson to reconsider his dreams.
Sometime after the player entered the time portal with Shadow Mind, Shadow takes over the Legion and destroys both the Dynasty capital and the Heralds Dome. What happened to Deng Rao remains unknown.
Void Speaker's Adventure: Battle of Laws[]
In the Palace, Indigo called out Deng Rao as 'golden boy' and asked if he saw the old witch Song as they need her. Deng Rao didn't answer and questioned Indigo and Ishtar's identity, accusing them that they entered the Emperor's throne room uninvited. He then ordered the Palace's guards to take them down, but unsuccessful. Defeated, Deng Rao said that they took advantage that all the guards are in the market and demanded to tell him who did they pay and who betrayed the Emperor. However, Indigo told him to get out as his screaming is giving her a headache. He then swore that he will be back and they will be in trouble.
Transformation: June's Plane[]
The Palace is under attacks of cultists known as Heralds, who worship shadow energy. Deng Rao, the captain of the guard, is currently handling the situation, but he may need help. After the prince/princess beats a Herald, he suddenly vanishes from their sights. Phang informs the prince/ss that Heralds love doing that after they are defeated. These cultists appeared out of nowhere only recently, about one year ago. Deng Rao, who is just done as well, tells them both that some Heralds escaped, but most are dead.
They find the people in the capital bazaar to be acting weird, as if they were sleepwalking. Phang has a guess that this is another Heralds' doing, while Deng Rao has captured a cultist girl. Phang then decides to try a nonviolent approach to make her speak and he asks her some questions. The cultist outrightly shoos them away, as she is in a hurry. Phang introduces the prince/princess to the cultist, in hope of making her speak, only for her to sarcastically comment that she does not care and vanishes. Phang and Deng Rao are irritated by this, but Phang quickly regains his calm and suggests that they return to the Palace.
Xiang Tzu takes the prince/princess and Phang to the Resistance camp, located on a fortified bamboo grove. The Mad Master then introduces them to his master, General Marcus. The general welcomes them both and takes them into the camp. Inside the camp, a Resistance member named Yukka asks Xiang Tzu his progress with Heralds. Marcus reminds that they will not decide anything without the Guardian's opinion, who is currently questioning the old captive. Everyone pays the Guardian a visit, who turns out to be Deng Rao. Both Phang and Deng Rao are surprised to see each other - Phang cannot believe that Deng Rao is one of the leaders, while Deng Rao tells everyone the two benefactors' real identity.
The time returns to normal. The Alliance troops are breaching towards the Resistance camp. Deng Rao makes a guess on who informed the Alliance of this location, to which Phang rebutted. The Emperor who is coming with the troops confronts Deng Rao and Marcus. Deng Rao finally admits everything. He is indeed one of the Resistance leaders and he has no regrets whatsoever. He had seen enough of the Emperor's reign and he is disappointed that the Emperor sold the Dynasty to the Legionaries and sacrificed their science to please them. He is upset because the Emperor beheaded the Dynasty's shadow energy research and forbade it, taking away this treasure of their nation to fill up his own buddies' pocket. Deng Rao also claims the prince/princess is probably a Legion spy already as they have not set foot in the capital for ages and no one will even know. The Emperor replies that the prince/princess is a loyal subject of the Dynasty and they will detain Deng Rao right now. The prince/princess then battles Deng Rao, who fights back. After he is defeated however, the prince/princess suddenly vanishes, along with Marcus and Phang. Deng Rao makes another claim that the prince/princess might even be a Herald. Emperor orders Deng Rao to be arrested for plotting against the empire, to which Deng Rao replies with an insult, saying he prefers to rot in prison than to guard the Arrow of Cowardice.
Transformation: Itu's Plane[]
In the Palace, Proxy protected Bolo by defeating the Moon Snakes ordered by June. One of them was Deng Rao, who was the Moon Snakes' leader.
Transformation: Marcus's Plane[]
The party go to the crypt only to find that Tarlan's men have surrounded the crypt. The General then deals with Deng Rao as the Scourgebringer which was sent by the Tarlan. They manage to defeat him in the battle, but the Scourgebringer infected them with the Scourge.
Finale: The Gates of Shadows[]
Deng Rao appeared for the last time as the first mini-boss of June's Hero shards. From her memory, Deng Rao politely greets June. Mnemos, however, senses the hostility under Deng Rao's face, and tells June to be ready to fight, to which she says that he wants to kill her. It was revealed that he wants to kill her to blame the Legion military for her death.
Fights against Deng Rao[]
Deng Rao is fought as the first boss of Chapter I. Deng Rao fights with the Dynasty fighting style, and he wields a legendary shadow sword called Dragon's Roar. Deng Rao utilizes three Shadow abilities and two perks. The fight can consist of five rounds, and the players must win three rounds in order to win.
Deng Rao is also fought as an opponent in Chapter VI. This time, he wields the Crown Defender as his weapon. The fight can consist of three rounds, and the players must win two rounds in order to win. At least one Epic card is guaranteed as a reward yet again.
Deng Rao is fought as an opponent in June's Plane, fighting back the prince/princess from being detained. He can inflict a poisoning effect on the player from a successful hit or a blocked hit. The rate of health drops depends on the player's stability; the lower their stability, the more health is to be depleted. The fight can consists of five rounds, and the players must win three rounds in order to win.
The same with June's Plane, in Itu's Plane he can inflict a poisoning effect on the player from a successful hit or a blocked hit and the fight can consists of three rounds, which the players must win two in order to win.
In Marcus's Plane, he wields the Cyan Talons as his weapon. He can inflict a poisoning effect on the player from a successful hit or a blocked hit. He also gain Shadow Energy bonus for steps, rolls, jumps and swaps or enters Shadow Form with full shadow energy bar and becomes invincible for 10 seconds after his health is out. The fight can consists of three rounds, and the players must win two in order to win.
Deng Rao is last fought in Finale: The Gates of Shadows in June's memory. Deng Rao has the Guardian Dragon set bonus: each successful Guandao hit grants him 7.5% of the bar worth of shadow energy. However, this ability does not work if he's in Shadow Form. The fight can consists of 5 rounds, and the players must win three in order to win.
Gallery[]
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Trivia[]
- When Deng Rao's character was revealed in Shadow Fight's official YouTube channel, his name was Ran Di instead. It is unclear why his name was changed.