Natural Enemy 2-4A

There was no warm-up, no fancy stance or anything like that. He just surged forward with a straight shot, floorboards groaning as he threw a hammer fist aimed right at Patch’s ugly bearded face.

Except Patch wasn’t there.

Whoa. Kai’s knuckles hit nothing but dead air, the world tilting as the big man jumped back, moving way faster than anyone shaped like a dumpling should move.

“Whoops!” Patch cackled, the man’s mouth wide open as he dropped the merchant to the floor in a heap.

Before Kai could correct, no chance to even try to step back, a shadow blocked the light. Wha- 

All the air left his lungs in a wheeze as something slammed into his ribs.

It felt like getting hit by a swinging side of beef.

He stumbled back from the weight of it, boots skidding on the dirty floorboards as he stumbled back. Ow. Just... ow.

"N-no, not here!" The merchant’s voice was high, thin, buzzing in Kai’s ear as the man scrambled backward like a crab on the beach. “Please! M-my inventory!”

Kai shook his head, the room swimming for a half-second as something rocked his nose just as hard as the fist had hit him. The smell, not just the stale room, but from them. Patch might have been bad but Stench lived up to the name, the guy smelling like a dumpster behind a seafood restaurant in July. 

Hot garbage, rancid sweat and so much worse coated the back of Kai’s throat, thick and oily.

“I’m gonna wash you both clean!” The words tumbled out of his mouth, breathless and stupid as he winced again. Wow… th-that sucked. Out loud, it sounded… well, kinda like a threat from a maid.

“Not in here!” The merchant shrieked again, waving his hands as his already-cracked glasses hung halfway off his head. "My stock! My crates!"

Patch was already moving again, circling to the left as Stench came from the right. 

Kai threw a sloppy backhand at Stench, the big man dipping and dodging with a cackle to match his brothers. With a grin, Stench drove a fist into Kai’s stomach, big knuckles grinding hard into a soft gut.

The teenager grunted, the sound wet and ugly, but powered through. His other arm swung back, a wild haymaker that caught nothing but air. Godddam-!

The anger turned to pain and shock as his leg buckled, a hit to the back of the knee from one of the Grimes sending him to his knees. Wood dug into his skin, teeth gritted as he shoved himself back up with anger flaring in his chest.

Hot, prickly static felt like biting down on aluminum foil, Kai half-near roaring through gritted teeth. I’m stronger than these losers. He knew that; he could lift the skiff and could haul ironwood trunks like they were Styrofoam. 

So why couldn't he hit these guys?

"Oh my god, take it outside!"

"Shut up!" The roar tore out of his throat raw as he lunged at Patch again, abandoning the punching. Grab him. His fingers hooked onto Patch’s vest, leather slick with grime. 

The greasy bandit grinned back at him, browned teeth and yellowed eyes showing wide as the pirate twisted. He spun into the grab, using Kai’s own pull to launch an elbow right into Kai’s nose.

White light exploded behind Kai’s eyes, the taste of copper flooding his mouth as he stumbled back again. Eyes watering and nose throbbing, the room blurred into a smear of beige and brown. You're losing. 

The voice in his head was cold; not chill, not scared, just all facts. You're losing to trash. To a paycheck.

Roaring again, Kai charged.

Head down, shoulder forward, all force.

Stench met that force, the other Grime brother grabbing Kai’s shoulder with hands that could have bent an iron pipe. “Gotcha, little fish!” He grinned wide as a grunt left him, breath smelling like something had died in his mouth the last time he took a shower.

Another grunt spilled out of him as he tried to lift Kai.

Tried.

Kai planted his feet, weight dropped as low as he could get it, and Stench’s eyes suddenly found themselves as wide as his grin wasn’t; boots carved grooves in the wood as the former pirate tried to haul a fleshy boulder.

“Getoff!” Kai threw his arms up, breaking the grip and knocking the big man’s hands away. A second later, he threw a punch.

It wasn't a good one. He knew that as soon as it went out. His thumb was tucked wrong, wrist not straight; it was straight, sloppy, and had no technique, because Kai had no technique.

But what it did have was the weight of a small boat behind it.

Stench felt every pound of that weight as it hit his gut, the big man already doubled over and wheezing hard enough to make the room stink worse.

The grin on Kai’s face didn’t get a second to make itself home as Patch was there, and the boy felt his face sting again. Two quick jabs — one to the nose, one to the ear — had his eyes watering and the hail of hits that came right after definitely didn’t help.

Patch wasn’t hitting hard enough to break bone, and Kai didn’t think the guy even could. But he was hitting fast for a guy his size, almost too fast.

“Dance, piglet!” Patch laughed as loud as before, the acrofatic stink-bomb of a man dancing back out of range before Kai could grab him.

“Sh-” Another jab had him swallow the curse, Patch jumping away from his counter. “You’re fat too!”

They were a team, for sure. A greasy, smelly, surprisingly coordinated team.

Stench jumped back in, treating the gut-punch like nothing more than indigestion, and swung a haymaker that would have taken a normal guy’s head off. 

The wind of the punch ruffled his hat as Kai ducked the hit. Jeez! The big guy stumbled into a shelf of canned beans, metal sent flying and clattering onto the shattered wood planks at their feet.

“Oh my god, take it outside!” The merchant clutched at his head, still screaming like anyone was paying attention to him. Unfortunately, three-fourths of the people in the back storeroom were too focused on other things. “You’re destroying my stock! That’s imported!”

Kai scrambled back, sandaled feet almost slipping on a jar of peaches as his fingers clenched tight around a can at his feet. The thin metal crumpled in his grip, black beans leaking free all over his hand.

Ew. With a grunt of his own, Kai threw it like a fastball.

The aluminum container hurled free, Patch clutching his gut as he took it almost head-on. “He threw beans! Who throws beans?”

“Ow!” Patch yelled, stumbling back, clutching his head. “He threw beans at me! Who throws beans?”

“Shut up!!” Kai charged Stench again, launching himself into the air. Knees tucked in tight, he was almost a cannonball as his mass carried him forward.

A cannonball with legs.

He hit the dirtier of the brothers center mass, him and Grime both going down in a tangle of limbs and grunts as they rolled across the storeroom floor. How are these guys so strong?

They were, like surprisingly so. Kai knew he wasn’t untouchable or nothing but two years on the island had him get a pretty good feel for how strong he was and how strong other people weren’t. Sure, most adults on Kaihua seemed a bit stronger than most people he had ever seen before but he was pretty sure that was because of, like, island work… right?

Right.

Either way, he was pretty sure he was like top three on the whole of Kaihua when it came to muscle, and two of those three were related.

The knee he took to his stomach reminded him that some people could get pretty damn close to those spots. 

Kai rolled to his feet, breath coming out in hard as he decided to do something different; his focus drifting to the moisture he could feel on his twitching fingertips, the sweat dripping down Stench’s face and even the water in his own gut.

He pulled.

Water gathered around his fists, a shimmering liquid coating of swirling blue. “Round two, assholes!”

Stench saw the water, grin widening even more. “Oh, you one o’ them, eh?” The big man cackled with the question, not even waiting for an answer as he reached into his pocket and pulled out… a jar?

A jar of grey, thick goop — What the ​​— that he immediately smashed open, right over his own fists.

What looked like a mix of engine grease and snot dripped free and clung to the bandits’ hands as Stench rubbed his knuckles together, the stuff squelching with each motion. "Slippery when wet, beach boy.”

“Oil up, brother!” Patch yelled back, quickly doing the same with a tin pulled free from his own pocket.

“Oil?” Kai blinked. “Gross?”

Stench charged.