The gas coming out of the burly man's mouth was thick. It spread out around Hitryel, forming a cloud of purple smoke. However, through the gas, he made out several colorful bubbles floating about them. Had they always been here?
Regardless, Hitryel didn't let his focus divert from the strange smoke. The first thing he asked himself was if humans could do that. The second was how he would counter whatever his opponent was trying to do.
But before an answer to either question could show itself, Davith smiled, flicking a lit lighter toward Hitryel—
The cloud of purple gas surrounding him caught fire, bursting into flames.
"Smoking idiot!" Hitryel cursed—the "smoking" was not meant to describe any of Davith's activities. Had he not spread out the Flow evenly throughout his body and rolled sideways, Hitryel would've been caught in this explosion. He had no time to dust himself off, though, after getting back to his feet, since his opponent's cheeks were swollen unnaturally as they both met eyes.
Davith spat out an even thicker cloud of purple smoke at Hitryel, only this time the gas did not spread, it was denser, and every bit focused. "Smogscreen!" Davith yelled right after spurting out the purple ball of smoke.
Hitryel wanted to dodge the attack, but the thick cloud burst on the path—before reaching to him—enveloping him in the same purple gas from before. He wanted to avoid it since he couldn't counter something untouchable, but he was not sure how he was meant to do that. Get away from the source of the gas, or get closer to him?
It seemed this day wasn't one for answers, since another lit lighter flew his way—
The gas ignited again—way faster than before—making Hitryel lunge at his opponent before the purple flames could have him in their grasp. The plan to avoid these "gas bombs" was simple.
'I have to stay close to him,' Hitryel thought. 'Even he isn't crazy enough to burn himself.' However, in the spirit of this evening, another question came to Hitryel's head—this one a bit more relevant.
Davith threw a left hook as Hitryel crept close. The attack wasn't slow, just unrefined, making it a breeze to avoid.
As Hitryel prepared a counter—the left side of his opponent being exposed—he blurted out his question, "I won't go easy on you because you jacked up my bike, but what's making you so smoking heated?" With that, he delivered a right hook to his opponent's left side. "Huh?"
Multicolored bubbles of light rippled out from the point of impact, solidifying Hitryel's curiosity about them. He hadn't seen anything like them before. Did it have something to do with his opponent's ability?
So many smoking questions!
Davith did not react like the fighters Hitryel was used to, instead, turning right back to him and striking with a right hook. The height advantage buffed the arc of Davith's punches, but the speed of this man was not at all at par with what the ABC had made Hitryel accustomed to.
An opponent who couldn't push Hitryel toward his ambition… Pathetic.
"I'm warning you," Hitryel said, ducking under the right, throwing a high kick at the same point of his last punch. "With the next hit, I'm ending this—"
Davith caught his foot. "You don't get to decide that, champ." He grabbed the thigh belonging to the same leg, then swinging Hitryel over his head, he slammed his opponent to the front—the bubbles of light bursting from the ground after Hitryel crashed into it, like water erupting from a calm lake when a heavy rock was thrown into it.
"I hate privileged bastards like you, champ," Davith said, looking down with a smirk. "The only reason why you got this far, beating the less privileged brawlers—the REAL ones—was 'cause of having the back of the greatest heavyweight. But that ends right here!
"I ain't planning on letting you off the hook alive, not after finding you this easy!"
Hitryel sighed from the imprint he made on the earth beneath his back—the Flow going through his body protecting him from greater damage. "Let me get this straight," he asked tiredly. "You wanna kill me because I defeated the brawlers you were rooting for, huh?"
"I wanna kill you to redeem the ones you defeated 'cause of having that free advantage!" Davith blurted, breathing heavily, purple smoke attached to his exhales, as he slammed a foot down.
Hitryel rolled to the side, avoiding the oncoming stomp. Then using Davith's leg as support, he sliced a left kick to the burly man's right side, pushing off the ground right after—a very few bubbles of light bouncing off from the impact point.
Davith threw a forward kick as Hitryel balanced himself, knowing he could not dodge. But the speed…it was unimpressive, giving Hitryel enough time to slide to the side, push his left arm away from the body, and catch then oncoming kick.
Hitryel exhaled, his Flow focusing on his right fist. Davith's eyes widened. The man knew this would hurt—
Hitryel released the man's foot, ducking as fast as he could. 'What in the smoke!'
Davith grinned, opening the distance between them. "You thought that was all I could do?"
Hitryel glanced over his shoulder to double-check. Then he returned his eyes onto the opponent in front, standing. Indeed, Davith just spat out a ball of purple fire from his smoking mouth!
Davith pulled back his head, inflating his cheeks, probably prepping another of these purple fireballs. Distance. That was all he had going for himself. And that was exactly why Hitryel had to take it away from him.
Hitryel sprinted toward his opponent with the objective of making this a close-quarters fight. Davith spat out the fireball he was building at Hitryel, blocking the path in front of him, limiting Hitryel's movement.
"Toxic Flare!" he yelled with a grin—
Hitryel slid underneath the toxic fireball, purple flames almost brushing against his nose. He immediately sprung back to his feet, focusing on the move he never got to use in any of his fights in the ABC.
Since this punch was way too deadly to be used against opponents you had nothing personal with.
Which was the exact reason why it was so perfect to use it agaisn an opponent who wrecked the bike Tryst had gifted to him!
Davith eyes and jaw widened seeing Hitryel invade the distance he was trying to build and maintain. "What the—" By now he must have sensed it too. It would've been surprising if he didn't.
The Flow going to Hitryel's right fist was just too strong to not notice.
"We're done."
###
Ryuzio's plan was dumb. After getting pummeled by Baru so ferociously—only because he himself continued to throw really awesome and tough Dragon Bullets—even he had to acknowledge that.
"It's honestly getting hard to watch this," the pink-haired girl said. "Why don't you finish him already, Baru?"
"What the fluck do you think I'm trying to do here?" Baru said, annoyed. "This brat just refuses to go down, no matter how many times I hit him!"
Ryuzio's breathing was getting heavier with each attack he ate. He could not take much more of this. Not because he was getting tired or his Ether was running thin…
Only because it was awesomely lame to be on the losing end. It was so boring to be the one taking damage. This fight would only get exciting once he landed a clean punch on that Baru's damn face!
But how!
"Don't just stand there, you brat!" Baru shouted, annoyance in his tone. "Just knock yourself out already!"
Wait…
"Heh?" Ryuzio picked his nose with a pinky. "Now that I think about it, you can't really attack without me attacking first."
Baru froze. "Eh…?"
Ryuzio smiled, preparing another Dragon Bullet, this time with a clear intention. "You can't balloon yourself without my Dragon Bullet, yeah?" He threw his right fist at the opposing Volant.
"Hm?" the pink-haired said in confusion as Baru put a palm forward to block the Bullet, just like he'd done before. "Knowing that much," she said, "you still decided to help him? What a selfless man you are."
Ryuzio was unsure if she meant it genuinely as he charged his legs with all the Ether he had, strengthening them.
Baru's palm inflated upon the clash of Ryuzio's bullet with it, multicolored spheres of light bursting out from the contact point, hanging about in the air. "This got repetitive real quick." He transferred the air bubble to his right fist, throwing it at Ryuzio right after—
Ryuzio jumped, leaping toward Baru over the inflated fist. "Whenever you use that massive punch, I can't see you!" So he'd figured it would be the same the other way around. Ryuzio was very smart.
Baru's right hand deflated, returning to its normal size, and seeing Ryuzio in the Bullet stance hovering above his head, his eyebrows rose.
Ryuzio's intention from before this exchange started was simple: to find out if Baru could balloon himself in quick succession. And he was about to find it out.
"Dragon Bullet—!"
Ryuzio was shocked to find out an inflated hand in the path of his Bullet—
Baru's other hand inflated—without the other one deflating—as spheres of multicolored light flew out from their clash, and before Ryuzio's feet could reunite with the road below, Baru slammed an inflated palm on top of him, squashing him down.
Ryuzio protected himself from getting crushed by the weighty palm by crossing his forearms over his head, the ground below the one knee he was on cracking under the pressure from above. But soon the weight pushing him down began lightening as Baru's palm deflated.
Ryuzio looked up, meeting Baru's eyes, above the man's curved lips.
Baru's smirk widened. "I hope this answers you question."
So his balloon fists did not depend on any attacks, it seemed. Ryuzio could not help but blame himself. After all, how could he have looked over the fact that when Baru had hit Codix, his fist had inflated without absorbing any external damage.
"Don't get hurt from thinking too hard," Baru said, looking down at Ryuzio. "Counter Impact is only one of my Etherskills. It compliments my other Skill pretty well. I call it Impact Bank. From every hit that I take, I store away some percentage of it in my Impact Bank before using Counter Impact. That's why whenever there is no strike to counter, I have other attacks."
"Shut up!" Ryuzio shouted, pointing at Baru after climbing back to his feet. "Don't try to confuse me! I'm thinking of a way to beat you!"
The masked girl shook her head from behind Baru. "What a simpleminded moron."
"So how much time do you need?" Baru asked with a demeaning smirk.
"I've already figured it out!" Ryuzio said, taking his Bullet stance.
Baru sighed, holding a palm to the front. "We've tried that a million times already."
"Just watch me!" Ryuzio threw his Gauntlet at Baru's palm.
Baru shook his head as the fist clashed against his palm. "You can't hurt me—" Not a single sphere of light erupted from it.
Ryuzio smiled as the Ether from his right arm reached all the way down to his left leg, his Gauntlet deactivated seconds before.
Baru's eyes widened, and the first time in this fight, his face discolored a bit—
Ryuzio threw his Ether enhanced kick at the side of the opposing Volant's face. Leading Baru to believe that he was going to attack with a Bullet, but then not doing it. Ryuzio was awesomely smart.
Baru slid rightward, his shoes scraping the road beneath, as he tried not to lose his balance.
The pink-haired girl whistled. "Not even I knew of that." She walked closer to Ryuzio. "You know what honestly; I have a proposal for you…"
Baru returned his eyes to Ryuzio, they darkened immediately. "Brat…!"
Ryuzio smiled proudly. "Say, Balloonru, you can only balloon up your body where I hit you, but only when you know WHERE the hit will land, yeah?"
Baru scoffed. "So what if you've figured it out, you think I'll fall for that again?"
Ryuzio sprinted toward him, smiling. "No!"
"Hm?" the masked girl said, seeing Ryuzio run away from her. "Hey, wait! I have to talk to you about something!" She continued to get ignored.
Baru put forward both his palms. "Come at me with all you've got—!"
Ryuzio jumped over him, running inside the alley behind. "I also figured that you'll follow me wherever I go." He thumbed at his headband. "Yeah?"
As expected, Baru ran after him. "Get back here, you brat! You can't steal my property from me!"
The pink-haired girl trailed behind, though at a much lazier pace. "You know you're getting lured, right, Baru?" She got ignored. Again.
Ryuzio smiled, turning back to face Baru in the narrow alley. 'Time for my new punch!'