Clash Of Frost And Flame

Splash.

Budoshi had done it, as he had promised, the water caused him to buckle to his knees, but he knew it was coming and could force a bunch of it away from him by flash freezing it. He quickly got back up too, or as quickly as he could manage anyway. Taking a quick look at Flambréra, he was surprised that she was unconscious. Did he just win this battle with her, like that? If that was the case, he wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about it. A win was cool and all, but it wasn’t a fight to the finish and that had a crummy feeling attached to it. Quickly looking around the large arena, Budoshi noticed that, by this point, he was in fact the last fighter out of all those who had entered, it seemed the last of them slipped straight off as a result of the rush of water.

So, wait, he was the winner kind of winner here? Damn, now he felt even more crestfallen that the battle between him and Flambréra had ended so fast.

Thankfully, battling had not yet come to an end it seemed. A large otter-like woman had made her way into the arena, picking up Flambréra. Budoshi even recognized her voice, it was the one that gave him warning before. “Yeah, that’s me. Uh, thank you for the warning.” He knew that Flambréra would be alright, not that he thought this would keep her down for long.

The host of the event, Bash Brazen IV, had piloted his little floating platform down. “Well well, it looks like we have a winner!” Budoshi sighed, looking really bored now. Yeah, okay, he won or whatever, a win’s a win.

His expression lit up again however when the large otter warrior declared she wanted to fight and provide a challenge. Budoshi immediately held his hand up towards Bash before the Heran could say much more. “Hold that thought! I wanna fight her because I’m not done until I’m done!” His warrior spirit wanted more, he was grinning at the prospect of more combat. “I know she’ll be fine. I expect nothing less from my one true rival.”

Bash swerved his floating platform back upwards. “Okay, we have our official winner, but that winner wants to keep going, his fighting spirit is a wild one folks, fierce like a blizzard, Budoshi Viniferian takes on another challenger— and just for the thrill of it! What a guy! Lets cheer him on, because... Your Only Shot is FIGHT!!!” Bash and the crowd chanted and cheered.

Budoshi took the full force of the charge, yet he also tried his best to freeze some of the shield and get a solid grip so that he wasn’t simply tossed away. “Take it personally? No, no way, this is great! I can still fight, so I will fight!”

“I mean, yeah, I won. But you saw what happened, she wasn’t fully with it, so it feels wrong to have done it like that.” If Flambréra wasn’t at her best, it wasn’t right, barely a victory, just an accident. Of course, this was just Budoshi’s opinion. Still, it was about respect and that much would be clear and obvious.

As for why he and Flambréra were rivals, Budoshi thought it was pretty obvious. Maybe only the two of them really got why, but he wasn’t beyond explaining if asked. Besides, the statue-esque otter woman seemed nice enough. “We push each other further than anyone else could ever hope to do, we help each other grow, become more skilled. Essentially the textbook definition.” Budoshi shrugged lightly. “Plus, she just gets me, that’s always a plus.” Entering a tournament did seem silly just for each other, especially from an outsider perspective, Budoshi had to admit. “A tournament setting serves to prove our skills against others, and see how dedicated we are to see each other progress. Really it comes down to respect for each other, and I respect her a great deal... As explosive as she gets.” He chuckled. “And you don’t even gotta keep that from her, I say all of that to her face myself all the time.” Budoshi added with a bright smile, was he blushing even the slightest smidge? Yes, yes he was.

In any case, there was a fight at hand, Budoshi found it kind of funny just how different this lady was compared to Flambréra. Maybe he could tease her about it when she stopped being unconscious later. “I mean, do what you gotta do, right?” He wasn’t one to judge, but he found the way this lady put her stance on this fight a bit weird— like something wasn’t in the right place.

Another thud of the shield sent Budoshi skidding back a few paces. It hurt quite a bit but now he had a fair bit of his energy back. Next time she tried something he wasn’t going to just tank it head on. “Well, it isn’t as though I’ll aim for her either, you know.” Budoshi briefly interjected, brushing under his nose with his thumb. “You don’t seem the type that’d normally hang out with her, but it’s good to know she has more friends, what’s your name?”

Budoshi raised a brow slightly. The point of the battle being winning? Did he agree with that? “Uhh, no.” He responded, slightly confused but still polite about it. “Not as a whole at least, not to me. The point is to learn from it regardless of the outcome.” A lot of people tended to have really... Simple thoughts about one of the few Budoshi felt most comfortable doing such as fighting. He didn’t need to justify anything to anyone other than himself, and he had no reason to give his words any bite since this hydrokinetic warrior at least tried to understand.

Regarding Flambréra however, Budoshi’s brow furrowed slightly. “So what? I’m not going to make it worse or ignore it.” He wasn’t playing any games with the respect he showed Flambréra or the respect she deserved to give herself. “She’s been through enough.”

If there was anyone that respected Budoshi, he was beyond certain that Flambréra was indeed one of them. “I bet my life on the fact that she does.” His determined and firm expression said that well enough, but his serious tone of voice sent his sentiments out of the park.

As for fancying Flambréra, as the otter woman put it, Budoshi held no shame. “Yeah.” He smirked. “You’re damn right I do.” Rolling his shoulders and readjusting his footing, Budoshi had regained his energy and then some! Now he would be totally ready for whatever was thrown his way. A fight wasn’t so simple, at least not as black and white as his current opponent was implying in his opinion. “Just getting a sense of how you approach things, that’s all...” Settling into a proper stance, the air around him began to rapidly drop in temperature.

Did Budoshi even believe her when she said she wasn’t Flambréra’s friend? “Whatever you say, Miss Dahlia.” No, not really. As far as he could tell, this lady seemingly had both a literal and figurative rocky exterior. Budoshi glanced at Flambréra when the cheetah Zoan stirred, quick as ever to recover. “Friend or not, you don’t strike me as someone that’s heartless.”

“Hm? That’s easy, theoretical practice can only go so far.” Budoshi responded honestly, he was just trying to help Dahlia understand his point of view rather than put hers down— as much as he completely disagreed with it in this case, there was a reason for it to exist as it did for her. “What matters is how the pain or loss is handled. If you can’t do it, you weren’t meant for that life to begin with.”

Budoshi shrugged. “Yeah, so what if I’m ‘small’? Who cares.” ‘The bigger they are, the harder they fall’ was a saying for a reason, after all. “I’d rather be a joyous fool than a miserable genius.” He added with a grin. “Ask her yourself. It’ll be funny.” Did Flambréra know? Budoshi had no idea, he didn’t hide his side of it or anything, and Flambréra didn’t even ever ask him to knock it off anyway...

Before he could think on that any further, that particular train of thought was derailed by Dahlia continuing their battle of philosophies. “We’ll see just how much I can figure out.” He was a deceptively capable and fast learner, to be fair.

“Pfft, excuses excuses. One of my best friends is made of souls and preserved corpses, another was conjured from a fruit in the afterlife. You can be made of anything, a heart in a greater sense beyond a literal meaning will transcend all things. It always does.” Budoshi stated plainly, even Flambréra who was beginning to regain awareness had something similar to say. While it was not normally something Flambréra would say since it was so flowery and sweet, she wasn’t wrong.

That said, Budoshi only just barely stopped himself from laughing when Flambréra snapped fully awake. “Hey firestar, what’s good?” After their exchange, Budoshi gave Flambréra a shrug. “I dunno what’s up, she’s just compelled to have a go. It’s fine by me, but...” He gave a wide grin with a glint to his teeth. “Why don’t I square up with both of you instead!?”

Around Budoshi, several sharp outcroppings of ice would soon form, glowing with power as they shot off towards Dahlia! “Surprise!”

Part of what Dahlia said seemed to set Budoshi off, and the Tuffle reflexively clenched his fists so hard that it began to draw blood that immediately froze over. “If you don’t choose, then it isn’t your life. Whoever chose it for you is the problem.” The emotion behind this ran deep, and his expression went from jovial to cold as ice in a flash, but he wasn’t angry at Dahlia, he was very clearly angry for her. “Anyone forcing a way of life on someone gets to meet the cold hard ground, and I’ll be the one to introduce ‘em.” Budoshi growled, raising a fist defiantly. The crowd that had for the most part remained relatively silent actually picked up the noise after hearing that, thinking it was badass.

“It is what it is, but thanks.” Budoshi did get a sense it wasn’t an insult, though he still wasn’t one to put much importance into it since he wasn’t intimidated by bigger foes whatsoever. “I don’t need history to remember me either, only those who mattered to me, that’s it.” For someone so ingrained in the idea of a fight and martial arts, he really seemed to lack an ego over it.

“Good. The more there is to learn, the more I can improve.” Budoshi gave a small smirk, which flicked into an amused snicker seeing Flambréra’s reaction to having missed a bit of the conversation. Both Dahlia and Flambréra bickered, reacting in the same way to Budoshi’s challenge to fight them simultaneously, it was kind of amusing.

Either way, neither wanted to be left out for their own reasons. Duty or passion didn’t matter all that much in this scenario when the end goal was the same. Budoshi looked to both of them and gave a ‘come and get me’ gesture to entice the two, and so the duo attacked!

Despite the clear and obvious problem with their synchronization as people, their attacks were conveniently timed quite well causing them to combine and become a stronger force. Good, this was precisely what Budoshi wanted. Now he was motivated. Winning or losing didn’t matter.

Budoshi’s aura erupted from him, expanding wider and wider until it almost reached the ceiling of the building. Parts of his aura turned cold with flecks of an icy blue. The pressure from his aura slowed the combined attack of his opponents a fair bit as an extreme amount of energy burst forth, shooting pinkish-purple Ki empowered ice chunks at the attack coming for him. At the same time, Budoshi charged an orb of similar energy and ice in a hand that he had reeled back, only to fire a beam that dissipated the boiling steaming fire water. Kicking off the ground, Budoshi boosted himself forward with a jolt from his aura leaving sparkling Ki behind him while compressing all of the energy he had left into his other hand, rushing towards Dahlia he attempted to deliver a well timed strike to her abdomen.

Dahlia’s silence told Budoshi all that he really needed to hear, and in truth, it hurt. It hurt in a way that was not shown in his expression or in his body language, it was just a moment in his eyes that both Dahlia and Flambréra could see, but only the latter of the two could currently understand. Budoshi’s gaze snapped to Flambréra, making it clearer to her.

The pain drawn from a life of being told who or what to be, having seen that festering sickness afflict many other than himself, having witnessed the consequences that a lack of freedom to choose could bring— whether it was necessarily good or bad wasn’t the issue, it was the lack of a choice. “It’s here. I know it is. I can feel it, I can fucking see it in her eyes!” Budoshi’s aura lashed out in response to a deeper emotion. For someone so normally composed, however silly he may come across... Anger of this magnitude was rare for him.

It was enough that he largely ignored other conversational points beyond maybe a change of expression. It would take a short while for him to chill out a bit, and letting out a whole lot of energy at once in response to a powerful attack. Budoshi doubled back a bit after landing the last hit, somewhat struggling to stand up— mostly because he put a lot of himself into that. It took him a second, but he noticed a solid chunk of Dahlia drop to the floor, giving a slight wince. Maybe a sculptor could help with that?

Or she could just recover that chunk and heal her own injury outright. Now that woke Budoshi up out of his moment of fury from earlier, having a similarly surprised or impressed reaction to Flambréra. “Hahah, okay, okay, that kicks ass, not gonna lie.” Budoshi rolled his shoulders as Dahlia advanced, he was fine with continuing the fight, but Flambréra of all people wasn’t “Huh?” He blinked in confusion. She wouldn’t want to stop without a good reason— and it was a lot weirder to hear her admit that she lost but even so, Budoshi respected what Flambréra was about even if she thought he didn’t. “Uhhh, alright?”

Once Dahlia had left, the announcer made their way over at Flambréra’s request. “Looks like that’ll be that, folks! We have our winner, even after a sudden addition— and it is Budoshi Viniferian, our age 1023 champion ooooof~!” The crowd joined in just as Bash Brazen once more chanted the name of the event. “Your Only Shot is FIGHT!!” Budoshi registered this, but only barely. He who would normally be enthusiastic about having his arm lifted upwards for winning a tournament was far more focused on his one true rival Flambréra and wherever the hell it is that the marble soldier Dahlia went.

Everything else was just noise to him right now.

Budoshi bared his teeth slightly at Flambréra for a moment, seemingly instinctively, perhaps an unintentional act of defiance in being told what to do just after making a statement on freedom of choice. However, in doing so, his muscles also tensed up, and to the announcer as well as the crowd it just looked like Budoshi was doing a bit of showboating just to keep them entertained— and of course they were.

Still, it was all noise to him, even the idea of any prize (which to be fair he didn’t super care about getting for himself to begin with) only caught his attention since it could be helpful for his friends or someone else that needed it more than he did. After collecting his winnings and storing them away in a capsule, Budoshi wasted no time in following Flambréra, he didn’t want to be bothered by the crowd or any potential fans right now so leaving and looking busy was the best course of action especially since anyone seeing him with Flambréra would likely back off.

Also, food was good. “Cool, cool, lets go.” Budoshi caught up to Flambréra quite fast, and didn’t look like he wanted to say much at the moment. Incredibly weird considering he would usually have some sort of dumb joke or teasing lined up. Budoshi took a look at all of the various vendors until he spotted what looked to be pizza, nacho and burger combo place in that they made dishes that were all three things as one thing. “There, that one.” He said decisively, trying to take one of Flambréra’s hands to lead her there.