Bai's temporary home

The home of the Smith-Knight of the Tenno Kingdom was found on the west side of the valley's wall and like the group that used it, it was a strange sight for Blake's group to look at 1st. It was mostly made of wood with a cobblestone foundation, the roof was angled downward and covered in gold-colored tiles with a flag of three dragon heads twirling around at the center of the roof. This was the flag of the Tenno Kingdom as Bai had pointed out when they got there.

But that was where the understandable differences stopped as the inside of the home was exotic with straw mats for the flooring and lacked any real furniture other than small cupboards, low tables, floor pillows, and a small indoor shrine to the Dragon Emperor Khan-O Of The three Stroms. The inner walls seemed to be just somewhat thick paper with designs of mountains, seas, or animals, all beautifully painted on them. None of the doors which again was thick paper swung open or closed instead you would slide them out of your way. If anyone looked into one of the bedrooms they would find simple bedding and a pillow, minus Ling-Ling's room which was just a pool of saltwater. But despite all of the oddities of the place it still gave off this overall calming atmosphere as if peace was found as long as you stayed there.

"HEY! I WAS LOOKING AT A PIECE OF MEAT!" That is if it wasn't for the battle for food between Saffire and Moco that was going on in the living room of the home where a huge boiling pot was placed in the middle of the room with all kinds of ingredients thrown in from various types of meat, vegetable, mushrooms seafood, noodles, a rolled thing of flour called a dumping, while more stuff was put on the side for everyone to enjoy.

"NO! I WANT IT!" The Merchild shot back at the Dragon as she had a large bowl twice the size of her head packed with nothing but meat both cooked and raw.

"Grrr! I GAVE YOU THE LAST ONE! SO THIS ONE IS MINE!" Saffira had a bowl just as big as Moco but at least she was trying everything that was there to offer.

"Please, you two! This is very unkind to our host! Stop it!" Risabeel tried her best to stop the two from causing any more trouble after Bai showed them his home and offered food.

"How the heck do you use these things?" Bread muttered holding a pair of small sticks that he was supposed to use to eat but gave up after stuff kept falling.

"I think you use them like this!" Mari cheered using the stick like skewers and offered one to Bread.

Watching the children and the ongoing fight were two women sharing a drink up above the party. "Oh, I want to tell them how to use these chopsticks but that's too cute!" Giggled Ling-Ling being carried but some wind whirling around her thanks to Baba while shaping her pair of chopsticks a few times. "And thank you for the good seats, my fine lady, may I fill your cup again?" She offered with a bottle in hand to the Ala.

"Please do, it has been some time since I enjoyed some rice wine," Baba gladly accepted as she held up a small disk-shaped cup. "And those two really hit off no?" She took a sip as her gaze went to Gram and Ume as the two were like two peas in a pot with a healthy helping of food and drink between them. "Didn't think the doggy could make such fast friends." It was all growls and fang snapping a few minutes ago but now Gram was happily taking pets from the Oni while his head rested in her lap.

"Orgebears! What are those!? Are the strong! Did they taste good?" A rather unnaturally chipper voice came out of Ume as she had found her translator once she got back home and had been listening to Gram's story of wild hunts with open ears.

"Hah! That's the sad part all they're good at is fighting the meats all muscles no fat." Gram laughed while lapping at a dish bowl filled with rice wine.

"Oh, that's not surprising." Ling-Ling chimed in taking a sip of her own wine. "Ume-chan is very protective of our master but once she realizes you don't mean any harm she opens up to just about anyone, although..." She explained then took a long look at Ume and Gram. "...Friendship might not be her true goal heh- AH!" Her giggling was cut short when a fireball meant for Moco flew by her face.

"Saffire! Moco! Stop that!" Blake yelled at the two girls when each had a ball of their respective element in hand. "Ugh! Just keep it down at least." He muttered when all Saffire did was glare at him while Moco put on a sad face but thankfully both stopped their fight for now. "So that's how you got this thing so big on such little ore huh? Might steal that trick!" Before yelling at his item he was having a chat with Bai and Anthony about crafting methods.

"Only if you allow me to use that tempering technique." Bai was all for sharing skills and tricks as long as he got his share as well. "And your machine reminds me of some puppeteering dolls! Are they also used for combat?" He turned to one of Anthony's bird Anthomata flying around the three of them.

"Oh course! But it does depend on the use." Anthony held out a finger from the gauntlet-covered hand and the bird came to rest on it. "This one would be used more of as a scout but I could outfit it with a small explosive?"

"I see," Bai took that to a mental note then piled his bowl high with odd white cubes called tofu. "Also, I'm sorry again that most of the Storage Houses I have opened did not provide much in the way of Smith-Knight knowledge." From what he had found out in the 'Storage Houses' he had taken to calling them after Anthony shared that name with him. "Information on blueprints of the Valley have been useful but so far nothing on what a Smith-Knight truly is but..."

"You think there's something here that we can learn from." Blake finished up Bai's thoughts and got a nod from him. "Yeah, I feel it too there's definitely something here that'll give us some answers if we can find it...Hey, Master Pius! Any really important looking places left?" He called out to Pius who was outside with Jiho as they shared a small yet still large pot of food between eachother.

Pius was drinking from a barrel as he was called out. "Already showed Bai most of the fancier looking places in the valley but maybe that's the trick." He shrugged thinking that maybe the less impressive-looking parts might have the info they had been looking for.

"That might be true since all of the ones I went into did need a bit of upkeep." Blake followed along with Pius' reasoning as there wasn't really much to go off on with the Los' 'Storage Houses' so far other than how to open them. "I guess it's luck of the draw while we handle the ones here." He muttered, lying on the floor with a bored look on his face as he looked up at Baba and Ling-Ling waving back down at him.

"Well then if you would like there is something a bit more exciting that we could do before we get back to work." Bai offered while noting Blake's expression and got a raised brow out of him that asked for a bit more info. "We usually do a bit of training around this time and with another Smith-Knight around it may be a bit more fruitful."

"You wanna fight me?" Blake sat back up in a flash at that one. "Well, that is better than just going right to the boring work. Hey, are you guys up for it?" He called out to his items.

"A Fight!" Moco perked up first and flew towards Blake quickly. "YAY! I get a fight! I get a fight! I get a fight!" She transformed mid-flight and stabbed herself between Blake's legs. "Hehe!" Then she started giggling while wiggling herself as a trident around in Blake's face.

"Don't do that!" Blake yelled at her when he got a heart attack at the way she came down. "You up for it too huh?" He turned to Gram who came up next after pulling Moco out of the floor and got some gills.

"Well, the last time you had a big fight you left us out of it but not this time." Gram grinned at Blake his fangs easily showing through then eyed Ume moving over to Bai. "And there's something about that one I wanna check out."

"Isn't your nose enough doggy?" Surprisingly Baba came up next to have a sit on Blake's shoulder.

"Hmm? You're in on this too, Baba?" Blake looked up at her a bit confused usually he'd have to cox her into any kinda of training or quest that had a bit of work to so this was odd.

"Oh, I'm just matching up with the colors is all." Baba purred with a finger being pointed between Gram and Ume then Moco and Ling-Ling. "Which leaves the scalely pony for me." She pointed to herself last and from outside came a loud snort followed by some lightning. "Oh did I hit a nerve heh," She giggled at Qilin's reactions. "You two don't mind do you?" She asked Risabeel and Saffire.

"That is fine Baba, I see no issue with it." Risabeel waved it off as nothing and was actually more interested in watching the match between Blake and Bai.

"More food for me." Saffire on the other was just happy to eat more now that Moco was business with something else.

"Welp, my lineup is all good and so is yours." Blake held Moco over his shoulder as he turned back to Bai who had Ume and Ling-Ling next to him now. "So where are we doing this?"

"We have a sparring area between the house follow me." Bai began walking out of the room followed by his items then Blake and his with Mari, Bread, and Anthony close behind, leaving only Saffire to keep on eating to her heart contain until she noticed the others were gone and quickly followed. "Here we are!" Bai held a hand out a large dirt-covered training field where a large circle drawn out by a thick rope in the center of it was found. "Ling-Ling with me." He and Ling walked over to the circle and stood behind a line on the left side.

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"Not fancy like the rest of the place but it'll do." Blake joked, taking his sport on the right side. "So how are we doing this? 1st to land a clean blow? Endurance match? Or some other rule?" He asked spinning Moco around a few times getting some giggles out of her as he did.

Bai held a hand to his chin to think then snapped his fingers at Blake. "We'll be using some modified rules of a sport played in the Tenno Kingdom, if you'll allow it. It's called Sumo; two people enter the ring and try to either knock eachother down or push the other outside of the ring usually it's played without the use of items and only grapples or palm strikes are allowed but for us, that's a bit different..." He to in a deep breath as he finished his explanation. "Hah!" Then let out a shout.

"Here we go!" Ling-Ling turned into a pillar of flowing water much like how any of Blake's items would do then crashed down on Bai, where it began to spin until it fanned out to show Bai now wearing a pink spiked Jingasa hat that partly blocked out his upper face by the way he tilted his head but there were some slits cut out for his eyes to be seen through. The change Ling-Ling had on his body was that his skin had taken on a blue color.

"Oh, so it's kinda like wrestling?" Blake wondered out loud about the rules of the match while pointing Moco at Bai, getting ready for his first move. "Anyone wanna be our starter?" He called out with his eyes still locked on Bai who had gotten into a fighting stance that reminded him of the monk knight from the Rainbow Knights. "I wonder if he knows those weird strikes?"

"I care take of that." Pius offered, resting his arm on the Bai's house with a barrel of wine in hand. "This will be a best-of-three match between Bai Tie, Smith-Knight of the Tenno Empire VS Blake, Smith-Knight of the Laudonia Kingdom! Points are awarded to whoever pushes their foe outside of the ring or knocks them down on their back!" His voice roared like thunder to give a bit more flair to the sparring match. "Now begin!"

"Rah!" Blake to the first move by dashing at Bai with the intent of thrusting Moco right through him.

"Hmph!" Bai blocked the attack by lowering his head and let Moco's trident tip clash with Ling-Ling, sending out an echoing ping sound from their meeting. "Ah!" Then he spun himself around to roll Moco off Ling-Ling then went for a palm strike at Blake's side.

"No, you don't!" Blake quickly brought Moco back into the block with her staff. "Whoa!" And was caught off guard by how much force Bai could put behind his attack as he was lifted off his feet and sent back. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" And nearly got knocked out of the ring as he was right at the edge of it after just that one hit.

"Come on, Blake! Get him!" Mari and Bread cheered from the sidelines with Os wiggling itself wildly.

"Working on it!" Blake yelled back at them when he side-stepped Bai trying to wrap this up quickly with another palm strike. "Out you go!" He swung at Bao also looking out a quick end. "Huh!?" But Bai quickly backflipped over the swing and landed a few feet away. "Nimble aren't you?" Blake muttered while slowly walking up to Bai to get himself away from the edge of the ring.

"Like flowing water..." Bai smirked as sweat came down his face then more and more and more until it looked like he was dripping wet.

"Hey, you good? A little too hot out here?" Blake joked but the pool of water at Bai's feet wasn't giving him any good feelings as he switched up his hold on Moco to have her ready to block something. "Wait that's not sweat?" When he did he noticed that the water was coming from Ling-Ling.

"A bit? Maybe I should make it a cooler?" Bai began waving his arms around and as he did the water from his body began to follow his movements. "Flowing Whips!" With a few swipes of his arms, he sent whips of water at Blake.

"Ugh!" Blake deflected a few of them by spinning Moco around but one of them caught him be the arm and as if he was cut by a blade he began to bleed quickly from a deep wound. "Hey! I thought this was a friendly match here?" He kept blocking the whips a few more getting ticks at him.

"You could always move away?" Bai questioned back switching to swing his arms together as one to make a large water while. "Grand Flowing Whip!" He swung the tree-sized whip with the same force and speed as the smaller ones before it.

"Ngh!" Blake made an attempt at stopping the whip by holding Moco overhead but the weight of the water forced him to one knee. "Rggahh!" He put just enough strength to toss it aside before he was forced to roll on his back and lose the match. "Better close the gap before he tries that one again!" He made a b-line for Bai the next moment with a large swing prepared.

"Spinning tides!" Bai countered by spinning himself around and from Ling-Ling came these rings of water that encircled him as Blake drew near.

"Whoa!" Blake slid under the rings, watching as some of his bangs got cut by them as he went under Bai's defense. "Dammit!" Then he had to stab Moco into the ground to make sure he didn't go out of the ring again. "Well, this is bad. I can't get close to him and he's got more reach and here I thought spears beat hands any day." He got back up and watched Bai swinging his arms around again from more of those water whips.

"Chum! We need more water!" Moco cheered while bending her trident head into Blake's face. "Then we can go swing! Bang! Pop! To knock them out!" A few more wiggles were sent Blake's as Moco explained herself badly.

"More water? Bang?" Blake got some of that as he was trying to see what Bai was doing while Moco was in his face. "Oh water?" Then noticed the water left by Bai's moves and Moco's idea may some sense. "Ok, that'll work and hopefully he can't get control back after we go for it." He nodded to Moco as another water whip came into view. "Got anything better to try?" Blake taunted swatting the whip away and made another attempt at getting closer to Bai.

"Don't regret what you ask for. Waterfall's bow!" Bai raised his right leg up high with a trail of water following behind it. "Hah!" Then he brought it down quickly and a large slash of water rocketed towards Blake as it cut into the ground.

"Gonna borrow some water there!" Blake spun Moco around getting some of the water around the ring to come to him. "Shark Hunt!" Wrapping water around Moco Blake did a powerful thrust as the water turned into a shark head that bit into the Bai's water slash. "This is mine now!" And with an added twist the slash was dispelled and added to the shark's mass before it was shot at Bai. "Okay, that works just need a bit more."

"Shore's Defense!" Bai slammed his fists together and met the water shark with a head butt as a barrier of water formed around Ling-Ling as they clashed in a torrent of water. "Ngh!" Bai was pushed back by Blake's attack until he was at the edge of the ring like Blake was before. "That had more force than I thought."

"Indeed, Bai-dono, I don't think we should play around too much," Ling-Ling warned as Blake was spinning Moco around to gather up more water for some attack. "It may be time for more head-on attacks." The spikes on her shot out more water leaked out of her to make a veil over Bai's face.

"Agreed." Bai nodded as he clapped his hands together as his face was hidden by the veil of water while orbs of water floated next to him. "Be ready Blake!" As his hands came apart the water orbs went to his hand and started to spin around and gave off an aquatic glow. "Twin Whirpool blow!" Right after that, he sped towards Blake almost gliding off the pools of water that were around the ring.

"That's fast!" Blake chose to hold his ground as Bai came to him with a left palm strike aimed at his chest. "Gaugh!" Blake blocked it with Moco and was sent spiraling into the air by a spinning blast of water from Bai's hand. "Ugh! Where is he!?" While trying to get his barring he looked down to see that Bai was gone.

"Up! Up! Up!" Moco cried sending Blake's eyes upward as Bai was coming down on them with his right hand. "Now Chum!"

"Shark Shiver!" Blake aimed at Bai then tossed Moce at the other Smith-Knight with all his might and lost his gills in that moment.

"Oh! He's desperate now! Hah!" Ling-Ling laughed at Blake's last effort coming at her and Bai only for it to get dodged by Bai spinning himself around the thrown trident and went back to strike at Blake.

"What?!" However, to Bai's shock, Blake was suddenly pulled out of the way by a rope of water around the arm used to throw Moco. "Ugh!" Causing his second palm strike to fizzle out as he missed his mark then turned around to see Blake above him. "Shore's Defense!" He braced himself for the coming attack.

"Shark Dive!" Blake came down on Bai after drawing the rest of the water around them to Moco and was now as a large shark made of water that slammed into Bai's Shore's Defense and knocked him down and out of the ring. "One point for me!" Blake cheered after landing with a light shower falling around him.

"Yay! We won! We won! We won!" Followed quickly by Moco wrapping herself around Blake while still being a trident with the head of which coming dangerously close to either stabbing or cutting Blake's face even with him screaming at her to stop or turn back.

"Ugh, that was a heavy blow to my head and pride." Ling-Ling groaned after taking the Shark Dive head-on, while it wasn't enough to take her out of her transformed state it still rattled her a bit. "What of you Bai-dono?" She asked seeing as Bai had yet to stand up after getting knocked out of the ring.

"I'm fine for the most part. I was just thinking of how this fight might have gone if it wasn't a sumo match." Bai answered, watching Mari and Bread run to give Blake congrats followed by Risabeel and Baba while Saffire and Anthony just waved at him. "But being on the back foot isn't so bad it just means he might let his guard down." He rose up then walked back to the ring and gave Blake a bow with his hand clasped in front of him. "A good round, your skills are not just with crafting I see."

"Heh, I'd say fighting's my best after smithing that is," Blake smirked while giving Bai a short nod of his head then let Moco go for her to change back to normal. "Alright, Gram, you're up!" He called out to the Greater Wolf who was resting on the sidelines.

"Thinking of finishing this already, Alpha?" Gram stretched out a little then lept into the air and transformed on the way down to be caught by Blake and gave him his red tail. "Just making it last a bit longer than that first show eh?" He made the wolf head on his axe form smirk a little.

"Oh? Earth next eh? Ume." Bai flipped Ling-Ling off his head and lost his blue skin as Ling-Ling returned to herself.

"Right master!" And bounding towards Bai was Ume with a large smile on her face. "RAH!" Then as soon as she got close she tackled Bai and sent the two rolling on the ground as rock and stone cover began to them.

"Uhm, what?" Blake and the others just stared at the large stone ball rolling around them in confusion until it stopped in place.

Then it started to crackle a crumble until Bai burst out of it now donned in a suit of armor made of a chest piece seemingly of stone plates tied together with a stone skirt of sorts covering his upper legs and on each shoulder were a large stone Oni faces with the right one having a green gemstone in its mouth. Finally coming out of Bai's forehead was a single horn much like the one Ume had.

"So shall he move on to the next round?" Bai rolled his arms around and got back into a fight stance.

"Barehanded again huh?" Blake got his spot and went down low a bit as the other went back to the sidelines.

Then Pius held up a hand after looking to see if both Blake and Bai were ready. "Second round of match between Smith-Knights Bai and Blake! Begin!" He threw down his hand and both Bai and Blake took off at each the next moment as their next fight was underway.

Chapter End