Ice Dancing Around the Flame

"I forget Gyūki, what are we doing again and why did I come with you?", Chione asked Gyūki innocently as they walked into a city in Fiore. This was the fiftieth time she had asked that question throughout this trip and it was beginning to get on Gyūki's nerves. Gyūki let out a soft sigh as he thought to himself, "If I am not trying to calm a raging storm, I am babysitting a stupid child." He looked at the blue haired girl who was walking next to him and said, "Chione this is the last time I am telling you this so please pay attention this time." Gyūki paused for a second to calm himself before he said, "We are in this city to gather information about my missing son. You were visiting me and Otohime and you offered to help me gather information on my missing son since it was my turn to do so."

Chione didn't say anything at first and just stayed quite as her mind processed what she heard. "Why would I offer to help you? It sounds like a lot of work.", she said. "That's because you thought it was a wise idea to repeatedly push Kairi's buttons and Kairi responded by literally kicking us out of the house!", Gyūki said, irritation dripping in his voice.

Chione rubbed the back of her head and smiled sheepishly as she said, "I guess, I should start looking for information huh?" Gyūki gently pushed his cousin-in-law forward before turning right to look for information in another part of the city. "Yes, please do and please don't get into trouble.", he said. Chione responded by turning towards Gyūki and playfully saluting at Gyūki while she said, "Roger, I will do my best."

While Gyūki continued to go his own way Chione let her arm drop back down to her side before facing forward one again and proceeding down the path she was previously walking on. Thrirty minutes later and she had not done any work. All she had done is wonder around the city and get into trouble, despite the fact that Gyūki told her not to. She was about to turn right into an ally to actually start working when she sensed a powerful source of heat nearby. Her curiosity got the better of her and she found herself subconsciously walking toward the heat, curiosity driving her movements forward.

There, just in front of a large tavern, stood a crowd of people surrounding some kind of table. The crowd seemingly cheered on, throwing their arms up in awe, maybe a brawl was happening. Or not. If one went further and then past the many people, one would see that it was indeed two people battling. But not the usual kind of battle, a table battle.

It was an arm-wrestling! And said two people were sitting at stone chairs with their right arms taking hold of each other on top of the stone table. One of those people wore a Straw Hat, and had tropical clothes, an odd thing.

"GO ON! DEFEAT HIM TOOOOOO" A woman with slightly dark blue hair screamed from away, she seemed quite happy if not drunk. Besides her there was only a man in green clothes, wearing an orange bandanna as he sighed at the woman's behavior.

Chione slowly walked towards the crowd and when she got there it took her a minute to maneuver herself to the front of the crowd. When she got to the front she found the person she sensed moments before and found that he was arm-wrestling someone. As it would be a great chance to see if her senses were correct about his strength, Chione decided to stay and watch the arm-wrestling match with great curiosity.

Deciding that it would be a perfect time to play with the person she took an interest in Chione made a small, short, inconspicuously hand motion with her right hand. When this motion was made, she used her cryokinesis to decrease the temperature around the man with the straw hat by 30 degrees, allowing her to make the cold only effect the man she took an interest in. Most people would pause or shiver at least once, but Chione speculated that if he was strong as she believed than he should not even notice.

"JUST DOOOOOOOOOO IT DAMON" The woman known as Ayase suddenly screamed in all of her drunkness. Indeed, that man's name was Damon.

Just as Chione started to change the temperature around him, for a split of second Damon had given her a void glance, suspecting for that little amount of time she was an enemy. He wasn't affected by the cold though, not even shivering in the slighest while just moving in and finishing another wrestle "Hehe! I win" He comments with a full grin.

Chione smiled slightly when she saw that her senses have not deceived her. Not only had he passed her little test, but he manged to figure out it was her. Previously she only intended to test his skills on the sidelines, but the results of the first test made her changed her mind. Now she wanted to play a more active role in quenching her curiosity even though it was very rare to see her seek out a fight for the joy of it.

Chione didn't make her move immediately, but instead she waited until the crowd dispersed. When they did dispersed, she approached the man whose name was Damon and smiled innocently as she said, "Sorry about interfering, my curiosity got the better of me." Chione hoped that her small stature and childlike smile would be enough to fool the man into thinking that she was just an innocent child who didn't know better.

Damon suddenly turned to face her with a simple face, waving his right arm around as if to exercize "Hmmmm?" He looked puzzled almost, giving off an interrogative vibe. A smile appeared into his expression "Ooooh right! You used magic in me just now...but..." His puzzled expression came back almost instantly and comicaly "..but...who are you again?"

Upon noticing the change of vibe, Chione pretended that she was too oblivious to notice. She did this by keeping her body posture relaxed and carefree as if all was right with the world. This act has fooled many people, but if this integrative vibe was anything to go off of, Cione suspected that she would need to try extra hard to fool him "My name is Chione Dragonborn.", she said cheerfully. "What is yours?", she said, pretending as if she had such a short attention span that she was unable to hear the girl shout the man's name.

As Chione stood still, Damon just inhaled deeply the air around him, as if to relax too "Choone huh! Nice to meet you" He said while waving at her instead of simply extending his arm to greet her "My name is Damon D. Draco! Do you have any food with you?" He suddenly asked, glaring deeply at her.

"Not unless you can eat ice or a special type of magma.", Chione responded looking back at his glare with childish look on her face. The statement seemed innocent enough, but there was a lot of weight in her words. She was trying to figure what type of fire-based magic Damon used. Depending on how the man answered, Chione would be able to deduce if he used a fire-based Slayer Magic or some other fire-based magic.

"Huh??? Eat ice or magma? Noooo" Damon had a comicaly disgusted expression printed on his face, sticking his tongue out with his mouth wide open "Eating those sounds a bit disgusting!! Don't you have any meat or lasagna in there...?" Damon looked at her and then looked back at his siblings, only to find out they were inside the bar again. He'd have asked if they had food.

While his reaction was to vague for her to have a definite answer, Chione believed there was a chance that he used Slayer Magic. She came to this conclusion because the man seemed to be disgusted at the taste of ice or magma instead of the actual act of eating it. She was able to pick this up by paying close attention to his word choice. "I have an idea. I think we should play a game, if you win I will pay for your meal. You can eat as much as you want.", Chione said, setting up for her reason for approaching him.

Damon suddenly turned his attention back to the pinkette girl "OH?!" He suddenly screamed in awe, shining stars taking the place of his eyes as his mouth stood wide open with drool over it "As much as I want?" He looked intensely at her again.

She didn't respond right away in order to make it seem as if she hadn't planned it all. "Yep, anything you want. All you have to do is beat me in a fight.", Chione finally spoke. Her posture was still relaxed and carefree even though she had just challenged him. She took several steps back to make some room between herself and Damon. "If I win, however, you have to pay for my next meal.", she continued.

"Anything I want! Hoooooooo!" Damon screamed quite happy, while taking on a serious fighting stance although his eyes still shone like damn stars that fell from the heavens "Hmmm...that sounds like a good thing...but here?"

In her excitement, she had almost forgotten how many people there were. She thought back to the various buildings and places she passed. Many of those places were heavily populated, which would make them unfit for a fight. A couple of seconds passed before she remembered a perfect spot where they could fight. Chione pointed directly behind her then said, "I remember passing a small, old, and abandoned stadium. We could use that if you would like."

"Oh, you mean that colisseum-like thing quite close to the beach?! Ohohoho! Sure, why not?" Damon suddenly sparkled into excitement "We could fight like Knights! Yohooooooooo" The mage had began to imaginate himself wearing a full body armor-suit "Let's go then!" Damon now pointed towards the same direction Chione had pointed to "You lead"

Chione looked almost as excited as Damon as her eyes shined with excitement as well and she looked like she was on the verge on exploding with excitement. She turned around and marched toward the stadium at a somewhat rushed passed because of her excitement at the upcoming fight. A couple of minutes would pass before they entered the stadium. She walked toward the middle and took on a strong fighting stance. "Ready when you are.", she stated.

Damon quickly followed the girl behind, willing to be led by her, he had nothing to lose. As soon as they arrived inside the colisseum, Damon was grateful how it wasn't dumb-designed. It was open and wasn't big either, being just some feet tall. A very old kind of Colisseum. As soon was Chione showed herself to be ready, Damon took his fighting stance too "Right!"

Chione shifted on the balls of her feet before lunging at Damon. As she got withing range she aimed a couple of quick jabs at his stomach. The power of each jab was enough to easily knock the wind out a normal human. The jabs also moved at incredible speeds, allowing it to possibly appear as a blur to Damon. If the jabs were to daze Damon Chione would extend her hand and use her cryokinesis ability to release blast of freezing winds, capable of even freezing fire.

Damon sharpened his gaze as Chione quickly advanced towards him, he had good reflexes, thanks to both intense training and his dragonic senses. It didn't mean that he didn't need to get better! His feet still touching the ground, Damon thought of a quick move, his legs converted into shadows, he used both of them as if they were springs and swiftly released a dual kick against the ground itself!

The resulting impact would destroy some portion of it, sending it up, action which would possibly block Chione's jabs. The impact and the kick had also thrown Damon back. As soon as they would connect against the rock, Damon had already accumulated quite some flames in his mouth, quickly releasing it in both the rocks' and Chione's direction!

"Flame Dragon's Roar" He roared while in the air, sending that mass of fire.

Chione skidded to a stop and looked upwards as she thought to herself, "Well, that certainly narrows down what kind of Slayer you are." Chione took a deep breath before letting out a very loud and frightening roar reminiscent to that of a dragon. The moment the sound was emitted everything around Chione froze instantly, even the air was on the verge of freezing. The sudden drop of temperature threatened to freeze Damon's flames and Damon himself. The temperature was so low that it would be easy for it to freeze even the flames of a God Slayer instantly. If Damon's flames managed to survive than Chione hoped that the flames at least be weaken to the point that Chione's naturally cold body would instantly freeze what was left of the flames. The sudden decrease of temperature also greatly increased Chione's physical traits because of how it reacts to the cold.

"Eh?!" Damon noticed as how his flames continued to go even with the cold temperature! However, they would simply go forward and hit whatever it struck, including Chione...indeed, the low temperature cancelled out most of its hotness! Damon landed a bit far back from where they previously were. His flames had two effects, impact and hot, you're both pushed back and burnt!

Using her augmented speed, she moved so quickly that it would seem as if she vanished from sight unless Damon eyesight was sharp enough. Not even a millisecond had passed before she would reappear behind Damon and immediately threw a punch at her worthy opponent. While the punch was heading toward Damon at high speeds her entire arm transformed into a gigantic draconic arm. The fist of the draconic arm threatened to hit Damon with immense force, enough force to even daze a dragon. This attack would be very difficult to react to due to the suddenness of it, how close Chione was to Damon, and because Damon had just landed. "Dragon Impact!", Chione said.

"Yoho!" Damon saw Chione moving suddenly, although she didn't disappear to his eyes as she would to a normal human. He shifted the entirety of his torso into shadows, evidenced by a black tint appearing and covering his skin. Damon would suddenly suck in even more shadows as Chione dashed at him with incredible speed, the act of the man making his torso inflate comically while the bluenette's fist suddenly changed into that of a dragon's.

"Eh?!" Damon tried to not gasp as the fist collided against his inflated self! The impact produced a shockwave as Ball-Damon went flying through the colisseum, failing to hold his breath and releasing it as a burst of shadows which would possibly blind Chione. Even then, Damon tried to hold some of his shadows as he collided against a wall of the Colisseum and was thrown back to the ground!

His body had some shadows still, which contributed to him acting like a bouncing ball even in the end. It was in order to absorb most of the impact, Damon took in a deep breath, having still felt some of the punch "That's awesome!"