Valiant Dreger

"I realized something from my time at Mann Co. The pointlessness of these senseless wars over completely trivial obsessions. The death and pain all for some gravel!? People like Redmond and Blutarch are unworthy to exist. And Daenova has given me the power to rid the world of their corrupt greed and selfishness." - Valiant

Valiant is a employee and Spy for Mann Co and is the adopted brother of Claire and Rachel Watkins. He serves as the main antagonist for Arc 6 of The Atherian Knights series, later becoming a protagonist at the end of the storyline.

Valiant is considered a anti-hero, who considers many of his violent actions justified by humanities flaws or failures. He also possesses the ability to judge a person's soul and deliver "judgement" depending on the result, a ability he gained from a deal with Daenova. In exchange, Valiant promised Daenova power for him to use in order to rebirth himself as a Ather God.

Appearance:
Valiant is dressed in a white tuxedo, with a White Fancy Fedora and a pair of Tomb Readers glasses. He also wears "The Sneaky Spats Of Sneaking", a dark grey "Made Man" and a white "Rogue's Col Roule". His balacava remains blue.

Personality:
Valiant is considerably kind and shy whenever he is around in public, often seen by others as a loner. He takes on a slightly darker personality whenever he is faced with a act of injustice and darkly pledges that he would find those responsible.

He becomes rather smug and even cocky whenever he is faced with those responsible, even intimidating a dangerous drug-dealer into shooting him several times, surviving thanks to Daenova's power. His cocky attitude usually remains during his exchange with his target, usually using Daenova's power to scare or even mock his target. He can become threatening however, should the target aggravate him to the point of breaking.

Valiant does have a kinder side, which he mostly showed either to his sisters when they were younger or to his friends after he abandons Daenova's power and becomes a protagonist alongside The Atherian Knights at the end of the arc.

Abilities:
Valiant possesses a Enforcer pistol, which had been endued with a ability that allows him to read a person's soul and see their past, their crimes and their sins. He then loads a single bullet or tranquilizer into the barrel of his pistol and spins it. What happens will usually depend on what he sees in the person's soul beforehand. Valiant often calls this a "Judgement Game".

Worthy: The chamber will be empty, and the target will survive.

Unworthy: The chamber will contain the bullet and the target will be killed, usually with a shot to the head.

Penalty: A Penalty can rarely occur for specific alternate reasons, like if the person is deemed worthy to live, but needs to desperately clean their life or actions up. In these cases, the chamber will be loaded with a tranquilliser dart or the target will be shot with this tranquilliser dart after the judgement occurs.

The dart is usually removed by the target or by Valiant, and contains what could be considered a alternate form of fear gas. The target will begin to witness horrifying hallucinations, which will scare or even scar them into changing their ways for the better. The duration usually last depending on the severity of the person's actions, some lasting for a few hours, days or even months.

In one Penalty case, after finding a mugger who shot a police officer in the stomach and then fled, leaving him in great pain, Valiant later found and shot the mugger similarly to how the officer had been shot, despite the judgement deeming him worthy to live.

Sometimes, Valiant even manipulates the Judgement in his favor, against Daenova's deal. For example, after cornering CalTheSpy during the finale of Arc 6's storyline, despite being considered worthy to live, Valiant manipulates the barrel purposely to give Cal a guilty verdict.

Biography
Valiant was adopted by Claire and Rachael after finding him lost and stranded in the streets at a young age. Valiant later joined Mann Co alongside Claire, but was later assigned to a different team and lost contact with her.

Valiant experienced a overwhelming amount of death and pain during his time as a Spy and was presumably affected. He also later gained intel into the Redmond and Blutarch fued which had lead to the Gravel Wars and was shocked at the countless deaths that were being caused by their completely pointless and greedy feud.

Arc 6
Valiant later came across someone he thought was their Medic, but later turned out to be Daenova, who explains to Valiant he knew a way to bring order and justice. He promises Valiant the power to eradicate these people, but only in exchange for Valiant's assistance in ridding him of a old colleague for him.

Valiant agrees to his deal, and is endowed with the ability to read a person's soul and preform Judgement Games against people. He later creates a alternate personality themed around his weapon, "The Enforcer".

Valiant went missing for several years and was presumed dead from Arc 1 to Arc 5 of The Atherian Knights series. Valiant later returned to Mann Co using "Dreger" as his last-name as well as pretending to be a new recruit. He befriends Cal and the other Knights, who are unaware of his past or his connection with Daenova.

TBA

Valiant corners CalTheSpy and enflicts a brief Judgement Game on him. Dispite being once again deemed "Worthy" to live, Valiant intentionally turns the barrel, against the conditions of Daenova's deal and fires at Cal anyway, which he avoids.

Valiant is released from his deal with Daenova, who gives a brief ominous warning to Cal that he was well on his way to gaining the power to revive himself as a Ather God and warns Cal that he would be unable to stop him for much longer. With Claire free, Cal offers Valiant a second chance.

Valiant thanks Cal, but tells him that after everything he had done, his promise of changing sounded foolish. In order to prove he deserved a second chance, he points the gun barrel at his head and spins the barrel, engaging in one final Judgement Game. He pulls the trigger and the gun does not go off, deeming him worthy.

After Arc 6, Valiant becomes a protagonist in the series, but makes little appearance.

Knights Of The Past
In Knights Of The Past, when CalTheSpy is telling Dave about his and Claire's wedding, he mentions how Valiant had been Claire's best man.