Dust was fast drifting through the forest, covering it, as Codey and Karisa darted through it, unable to pinpoint the explosion's occurrence and direction, whereas Karisa struggled and began to grumble after hearing how Codey's brain fooled him repeatedly.
"We were here before! How does someone like me end up lost?! I should've arrived much sooner at the explosion! I've already wasted too much time!"
He fought and seemed surprised when he was immediately grabbed by Karisa's hand and pulled back, pushing his back against her chest as she yelled into Codey's ears.
"Stop running! This is getting us nowhere!"
Codey whirled around and grabbed Karisa by the shoulder, staring her down with his eyes wide open. He started shaking her back and forth in a rhythmic motion.
"I can't stop! Don't you get it, Karisa?! On such a little island, a navigator like myself should not be getting lost! My friend may be in danger, and if I don't arrive quickly, he could die! Remember, he can't even swim, and there's a lot of water around here! What if he slips and falls over the puddle, rolling all the way to the sea?! Who's going to save him?"
"Now you're just overexaggerating... Who would slip on the puddle, and roll all the way to another sea corner?"
He instantly became depressed and collapsed onto his limbs, defeated and flat, with white ghosts circling over his head.
"I'm a terrible friend. I'm sorry, Tim. You were most likely already caught by a sea monster, with no one, not even myself, able to save you! Please forgive me; I swear I'll go to your grave every day!"
Karisa then proceeded to knock Codey on the top of the head, causing him to receive a bump and cross his eyes as if he was dead.
"Man. I didn't expect to meet a depressed navigator when I decided to join your crew. But that's fine; at the very least, I'll have time to sketch a map of the island."
"We've must've circled this island a few times by now, but I'm still confused as to why we haven't discovered a building damaged by an explosion or a massive hole in the ground."
She took a step past Codey to examine the location more closely, stretching as fog began to drift from the side and transform into a humanoid body, which Karisa immediately recognized. In reaction, her eyes, shook, and Codey carefully positioned himself up and looked forward, bewildered.
"That frickin' hothead! I wouldn't have suffered such inexcusable damage if it weren't for him! Damn it, as soon as I get my hands on him, I'm going to kill him!"
"Smoghand...?"
Smoghand swung around in a catastrophic look, furious, as his name was spelled out from Karisa's voice.
"You're one of that hothead's obnoxious crew members! I should've known Claude wouldn't be useful in killing you! Chu-Chu-Hu, I guess I'll simply destroy you before I run out of gas!"
Codey was enamored with the location and had an itchy hairline as a result of the confusion and misunderstanding, digging in his ear.
"You know 'em?"
Karisa's hands shook.
"How are you still alive? I thought Tim defeated you."
"That hothead. Man, he's brain dead. Did he really expect that he'd kill me so easily, when I'm literally made out of smog? All I did was escape the attack by transforming into smog before he managed to roast me like a chicken!"
"I knew you were made out of smog, but I sure didn't expect you could dodge the flames so easily..."
"I guess I'm just *that* awesome, huh? Chu-Hu-Hu! But, now that there's no fire forest, I should be able to retaliate with ease."
"No way. I won't just let you retaliate so easily? I won't let you pass through here, unless you best me in a fight."
"Hot damn! A hot chick like you sure has a lot of confidence to fight a smog man. That's so funny, I forgot to laugh! That stick of yours would be better for stirring the sauce than to fight somebody so powerful as me, Chu-Hu-Chu!"
"You call yourself a smog man?"
"Yeah, is there something wrong with that name?"
"It's stupid!"
With rain falling down on him, Smoghand collapsed on the floor onto all four of his limbs, feeling despondent and profoundly dissatisfied with the response.
"She called me stupid... How can you be so cruel?"
"I guess he's very insecure about himself. Wouldn't expect that from a warrior like him..."
"Karisa..."
"Yeah, what's up Codey?"
"I think I might have an idea on how to find Tim. If I recall back, I'm quite sure that Natan went to chase down Clawford. If he found him, whilst Tim followed him, then's it's safe to assume that they should be together. We could use this guy to our advantage to bring us to them."
"Whoa, Codey. That's a brilliant idea. You're so amazing."
Codey laughed and shyly grasped the back of his head, proud of himself.
"He-He! Thank's."
"No crap, huh?! I had that on my mind since the beginning, moron!"
Codey, like Smoghand, collapsed to the floor and wailed out.
"She's scary..."
"Curly hair. How can you have somebody like her on your crew?"
With a pulse of purple energy raging around him, Clawford quickly crossed his claws in front of his chest, then slowly spread them along with his legs, but Tim stood still in a readied combat position, avoiding using his sword.
"All right, let's get this fight started!"
"Ha-ha, don't say another word. I've been waiting to get my hands on a tough opponent! Let's hope you're that one opponent I've been searching for unlike that 'Collarhead' in the back..."
"Hey!"
As a spectator, Natan stood in the rear with crossed arms, irritated by Clawford's mockery, waiting for the duel to commence. He muttered and the duel began in a fraction of a second.
Tim stepped forward in pursuit, raising his right arm and punching forward with a fist, which Clawford avoided by crouching, sliding his left foot behind him to slip out of the way, and then uppercutting his claws from his right hip toward Tim's jaw, who quickly dodged back by bouncing to the side, and then lifted his right leg.
Clawford descended on all four limbs and in advance seized the floor with his right claws to hurl into a front roll, while Tim put a lot of pressure into his own foot, only to miss, whereas Clawford kicked forward like a wielding sword in rotation, obliquely while using the other's knee as support to rotate his complete body around and kick at Tim, who moved back and crossed his arms to resist the kick.
Tim's body readied itself for a powerful hit, causing him to flinch in response. Clawford kicked forward like a rocket after slipping his left leg beneath his pushed arms and creating a bridge with his torso.
Tim jumped to the side and blinked behind Clawford's stretched body, then quickly raised his right leg above his head, attempting to slam his heel into Clawford's face, but missing due to Clawford's quick movement, who rolled out of the way and then vanished from the scene to appear directly behind Tim with lifted claws, readying to pierce.
Tim's reaction was quick to detect Clawford behind him, and he blinked to the side out of the way just in time for the sharp claws to slash the air, leaving Clawford defenseless for Tim to materialize alongside Clawford's hips and ram his knee into Clawford's mid-aerial posture with full force, but it occurred to him that he didn't land a successful blow.
Instead, Clawford immediately slipped his claw over Tim's knee to weaken the kick, then utilized that knee to twist and spin the air while saying "Slicer Claw" to come to a halt and stab forward.
Tim lifted his left arm to push the claw away from his face, but happened to be cut into his left shoulder in the process.
In the same stance as before, Clawford used that split second to quickly turn his body and then sweep his right leg, driving it square into Tim's raised left arm, who defended the hit, but was pushed to the side into the wall, causing the dust to spread around the room once more.
Clawford landed, but there was no break as Tim sped through the dust and slammed both fists into Clawford's stomach, easily flinging him through the air, only to see Clawford backflipping in the air, landing on his palms in a handstand, then immediately sprung back into the air to regain his footing.
Tim ran forward and prepared a fist, which he then drove into Clawford's stomach again, forcing him to cough out saliva, and pushed him faster over the ground, only for both of them to vanish from view.
They proceeded to advance at breakneck pace, exchanging blows without pausing, despite the fact that both of them had several wounds. Some of the wounds were cuts, while others were excruciating strikes, but they repeated the procedure for the following ten seconds before leaping out of their close conflict, both sliding on the ground and from the wounds they had sustained, they breathed heavily. Blood splattered on the flooring as their stamina was swiftly depleting.
"Kid... I underestimated you... I suppose you're not a pushover like that bard over there, ha-ha... But our battle is not over until one of us is dead."
Tim wiped the blood from his lips while severely breathing and realized that both of them were on the edge of collapsing.
"Claw dude, I can say the same for you. But, believe me! This victory is mine, and I'll take it when I'm finished. You'd better tell me where you hid those captive folks, so that I can rescue them from this nightmare!"
"Ha-ha! Aren't you a daredevil? Well, that's fine, but I'm not going down without a fight! I've still got a lot of fight in me! At the very least, it's enough to kill you!"
"Heh, same here! Let's get this over with once and for all!"
To be contined...