The two men continued to circle each other, drawing closer and closer. They each held their breath, ready for the inevitable strike of the opposing fighter. Yet they both remained reactive.
Obai was hoping that his change in pace would cause the monster in front of him to make a move. However, it seemed that Bolin had just as much aggression as a stone wall.
Seconds passed as boos started spreading through the audience. The ultimate defense happened to be incredibly boring. Yet, that's what Obai was going for.
Changing his strategy while facing his opponent, he recognized that Bolin may be strong and have solid defense, but he was way too predictable. What Obai needed to do was to throw some random into the equation.
Once the two got close enough to where the tips of their swords could touch, Obai made his move.
Bolin had immediately reacted, noticing that the attack aimed at his head once again. His hands moved reflexively, preparing for a parry into a counter. The wooden blade moved up and...
It was caught by a hand.
Obai had dropped his bokken to reach out and lock his enemy's blade in place. Using his forward momentum, he shoved his own body past the wooden defense aiming for the support.
After raising his left elbow while pulling Bolin's bokken into him, he brought it back down onto the giant's hands, crushing them, and yanking the wooden blade out before the grip could tighten once more.
He pulled the bokken as far away from them as possible, twisting his feet to dance around the big man. Just a second later he felt his side being pushed once more.
Bolin's surprise had worn off faster than Obai had expected. Even though the rules set by the Karada never stated that the fighting be strictly kept to using bokken, everyone had simply assumed that it was. Therefore, Bolin simply believed that he would have to fight with that disadvantage. Now... Obai's second lead-off enlightened him to a new possibility. To simply overpower his enemy before succumbing to the retaliatory hits.
The muscular arms extended out, catching Obai in a hug. The only limb he could still move had been the arm holding the wooden blade. It now waved above his head, desperately trying to find a weak point in the gargantuan grasp. Quickly finding the enemy's large head, Obai swung down with the strength of his arm, slamming the hilt of the bokken repeatedly into the head of the giant.
However, he could only got a couple hits in before being sent flying once more. The sudden acceleration caught Obai by surprise and the bokken flew out of his now sweaty and jittery hand.
Above him, the rapidly descending sky of bloody sand charged hungrily to crush Obai's skull.
'Shit!'
Obai flung his legs forward in the hope of somehow recovering safely. He didn't have that luxury however, landing on his upper back. Time slowed down as a spike of pain impaled him along the line of contact. He gasped as he heard the small crack of bone, a curse of agony flying from his mouth in response.
Laying on the ground, he quickly processed everything that just happened, calming his fuzzy mind. His break wouldn't last long though. As Obai tilted his neck up, dragging his hair through the sand, he watched as Bolin turned and begin a charge for him.
'Mega shit!'
There wasn't a second to waste. With one solid grab, Obai could be taken out of the fight in an instant. He spun to the side, scrambling up on both feet before the two were face to face once again.
With the lack of a weapon, there wasn't much Obai could do in this situation. He could attempt to redirect the coming attack, but it'd be tricky to evade everything precisely without the help of a small body.
'Dammit! Couldn't Teddy fight his brother instead?'
There was still his trump card. But the risk of the Karada noticing a change to Obai's body was too great for him to even consider using it yet. Unless he got a little creative...
Bolin was right on top of him. His right arm shot forward without warning, the barrel of muscle aiming for another grab.
Unexpectedly, Obai responded by moving his own arm forward instead of escaping to the side, sliding his fingers between Bolin's own, holding his hand as if the two were lovers. The strange move didn't end there, followed up by a more perplexing twirl of Obai's entire body into the embrace of the giant, like the two were attending a ball instead of brutally beating each other.
And yet the strangest and most violating phenomena had been unseen to the crowd. When Obai's palm had made contact with Bolin's own, Bolin felt a demanding order wash over his body, and a surge of energy, telling him to catapult his smaller opponent towards the ignored bokken that had dropped on the ground just moments before.
What followed was the beautiful dance of the giant and the devil. Obai practically skated across the ground, clouds of sand dramatically swirling through the arena backtracking towards the giant, connecting the two together.
The audience instantly fell silent, watching the devil drop to one knee, picking up his bokken, and standing back up ready to fight once again. The whole world froze, stunned by the impossible display that had all been orchestrated by composer Obai.
Then... there was laughter. Lots of it. If the cheers before had been loud, then the howls of amusement that followed were like thunder. Stronger than thunder.
People aiming to be warriors would never expect to see such a rich and dainty activity be performed for them by one of their own. Neither would any of them dare to be performing said dance themselves. Sometimes the unexpected was also the most amusing. And so, the laughs continued.
Men began to collapse to their knees, buckling over from lack of air and drowning from tears of joy. Slaps upon backs rang amongst the continuous roar of laughter and a few even began clapping in mockery.
All of which was simply ignored by Obai, who once again dashed toward the beast that had been left perplexed in front of him.
The blade sliced across the air, bringing itself down for one strong, clean, open strike onto the large head of brown hair. A satisfying smack mixed itself into the ongoing laughter of the crowd, and finally, the giant bled.