Rio Singh

Past his youth, Rio wears black hair above a mustache trimmed into a thin goatee. His debut outfit blends white with gold, and a red bandana sits knotted across his brow. For weapons he favors twin white sabers, one balanced in either hand.

Bravery defines Rio above all. He readily squares off against tougher foes when his guild needs protecting, and he will turn his blades on rival Hunters whenever survival or his allies leave no other option. As a celebrated rookie within Asura, though, he carried one crippling weakness: thinking with his head far more than acting with his body. Everything he chased bent toward climbing in rank, winning honor, and drawing the notice and praise of those around him.

Renowned as a scholar before everything changed, Rio awakened into a Hunter when the Great Cataclysm struck. B-Rank though he was, his name kept rising inside Asura, and the sudden arrival of an Egyptian pyramid dungeon prompted him to volunteer as its scout, eager to lift his standing. He reached the site with several guildmates, only to collide with a Scavenger Guild party; talks broke down, both sides squared off over rights to the place, and then Suho turned up out of nowhere asking for directions. Suho's refusal to leave drew an attack from Randolph, and a brawl erupted. Rio felled an enemy menacing Suho, warned the hesitant younger man to be ready to kill no matter the foe, and pitched an alliance, only to overlook an attacker closing from his blind side. Heeding that very warning, Suho dropped the assailant with one punch and saved Rio's life, cementing their partnership against Randolph.

Among the first to see Suho's necromancy unleashed on the invading monsters, Rio and his team were left stunned by it. They eventually came up against Ammut, who annihilated the harassing creatures, then laid out Rio and his guildmates while pressing for news of the conflict between Rulers and Monarchs. With Ammut freed and the dungeon brought down, Suho helped the recovering Hunters back into their trucks; on waking, Rio repaid him by arranging contact with his uncle in South Korea and walking him to the airport with thanks for the rescue. Trouble followed when Thomas Andre stormed Asura demanding answers, and Rio's people fought yet lost without a sound, leaving him to admit, to his shame, the role Suho had played in the pyramid incident.

Back in India, Rio set himself a mission: getting Siddarth Bachchan, who led his guild, to drink from the Forest of Echoes its fabled spring water, a safeguard intended to keep Itarim's Apostles from seizing or warping his mind. Siddarth had already left headquarters, though, gone to clear a Dragonoid field dungeon out at Loktak Lake. Refusing to give up the chase, Rio followed with Jackson, a C-Rank former subordinate whose driving talent such terrain demanded. A Naga ambushed and outmatched the pair partway there, until Kira, a shadow of Suho's that had been riding inside Rio's own shadow, stepped in and opened the way for Suho to appear by Shadow Exchange. Witnessing how far Suho now outstripped his Pyramid-Arc self, Rio fully understood he faced a Hunter forever climbing. Before Ali Hassan he later introduced himself as a former Asura man now serving the Woojin Guild as its self-declared interpreter and newest recruit, even picturing a Vice-Guild Master role for himself, though Suho never officially confirmed any membership.