Dark Descent

“But what? Go on, what is it?” Budoshi leered at Tarine coldly, seemingly unresponsive to Tarine’s panicked swerving, ducking and swaying away from any given strike intended for him. “Is that all you can do?” He asked dismissively.

Before much else could continue, Chomei had come crashing into the pavement nearby, crumpled into a heap. Without letting Tarine out of his sight, Budoshi slid over to Chomei’s side and tried to use his ice powers to bring some measure of relief to the pain that the master of the Dragon School Dojo was feeling. “Can you breathe, Sensei?” Budoshi asked, his voice far calmer when speaking to the martial artist. “If the Dragon can breathe, its fire still burns. If its fire still burns, the Dragon can fight.”

It was at this point that Lottus, the cause of everyone elses’ anxiety, had suddenly loomed over Tarine. Normally, Budoshi would have intervened, said something about having dibs on a fight, but in this state, his eerie calm gave him a different perspective.

So, instead, he listened. He listened and found himself agreeing with Lottus almost completely on this front. Leaving Chomei’s side, Budoshi menacingly approached Tarine once again. “He is right, you know. Now, where were we?” Budoshi brandishes his weapon at Tarine, ready to strike again...

---

Nervan, having now reached the group directly, watched what the two fighters driven in some way by their rage were doing— examining just how different they approached this Saiyan. As they launched themselves at Lottus, Nervan attempted to approach using them as visual cover until they had gotten close to their target to attack. Nervan moved jaggedly and in strange unpredictable ways between them until they were as close to Lottus as any opportunity would allow. “What is this power over rage that you hold? We find ourselves intrigued.”

Having managed to reach Lottus, Nervan paused for a moment. They thought this was going to be a more difficult endeavour to satisfy their curiosity. Luckily, this was not at all the case. While it lacked specific detail, Lottus’ explanation was quick and concise.

Maybe it wasn’t something that needed much thought put into it. Maybe it was just that simple. Nervan stood there motionless mulling over it. Could the power be emulated in some way to better suit Nervan? Their eternal stare floated until it landed on Russ, one of the victims of this ability. They would have been Nervan’s next go to, had further chaos not ensued.

Since they were more attentive to their surroundings than Budoshi in this instance, Nervan picked up on civilians still being nearby, and now there was a crumpled up fighter to see to as well. Slinking away, Nervan threw a grey glob of some staticy gunk off into the distance where the errant energy blast Lottus had backhanded went while making their way over to Yogu. While not a medical professional by any means (at least as far as they knew), Nervan could tell that Yogu was alive. Creating more of that static-y grey energy, Nervan tried to send Yogu off to where the other glob was thrown in the distance.

---

Budoshi understood that Chomei was trying his best to be selfless in the face of adversity, but even so, neither he nor Budoshi felt like they could simply back away. The only difference is what they had shown up here for. Chomei wanted to first and foremost defend the city and the people important to him. Budoshi... Well, he just wanted a fight, defending anyone came second right now.

Speaking of the fight— Lottus had rattled Budoshi’s opponent so much that he had elicited an adrenaline fueled response and attacked the Saiyan. Budoshi didn’t know what to think other than he was growing increasingly frustrated with this guy. He had initiated combat with Budoshi, tried to hurriedly back out, then attacked another person without even so much as a wisp of hesitation.

Was Budoshi a joke to them?

Dropping his conjured weapon, the Tuffle’s aura became heavier, breaking and deep freezing the ground around him as his glacial gaze locked onto the red-head that had done multiple things in rapid succession to agitate and personally annoy him.

Most everything else was lost to Budoshi as he focused on his target, everything except for the presence of Nervan somewhere and Chomei’s voice— something about hitting with everything he had. Budoshi remembered seeing Chomei’s techniques, admiring several aspects of them— and recalled one that Chomei had used earlier in this encounter.

Fierce energy, focused within the palms. A warrior’s tenacity given tangible form outside of their body. It roars with conviction unlike any other, tearing through all in its wake. The Draco Flash.

Making the motions of the attack beat for beat as if he had studied the Dragon School arts his whole life, Budoshi’s focus never wavered from his target. The energy amassed in Budoshi’s palms in a translucent ice-like misty form, and in the blink of an eye he kicked off the ground, descending upon the source of his anger. “Your fight is with me, impertinent bug.” With that, he unleashed all of the energy that he had gathered in one mighty punch, it resounded with the rumble of a snowstorm and desolate ambiance of a tundra.